When it was reported that Supreme Court Justice David Souter would retire, the White House didn’t comment immediately. Rather, it waited until the next day after Souter sent a personal letter to President Obama to outline his plans for the future.

But did the White House have prior knowledge of Souter’s retirement? In her 172-page questionnaire submitted to the Senate Judiciary Commitee this afternoon, Sonia Sotomayer writes:

I was contacted by Gregory Craig, White House Counsel, on Monday, April 27, 2009, with respect to the possibility of a future Supreme Court vacancy. Between that date and the present, I have had frequent telephone conversations with Cassandra Butts, Deputy White House Counsel, including near daily phone calls after Justice Souter on May 1, 2009 announced his intention to resign at the end of the current Supreme Court term…

So she was contacted by White House Council regarding a Supreme Court vacancy on April 27th. Yet, as Byron York points out, the news of Souter’s retirement hit on the evening of…April 30th. That means the White House knew something was about to happen days before the news broke for the rest of the nation.

On May 1, the New York Times reported that President Obama “said through a spokesman on Friday [May 1] that he had no direct knowledge of Mr. Souter’s plans.”  But later in the article, the Times reported that, “One senior administration official said Mr. Obama’s aides had gotten a hint of Mr. Souter’s plans, which were first reported by National Public Radio. ‘He indicated he may a while ago,’ the official said. But many senior officials contacted Thursday night said they had not yet been informed.”  So just what happened and when is not quite clear.

As if often the case with what is supposed to be the most transparent administration ever. The White House claims it had no knowledge of the impending retirement announcement, yet it was contacting potential nominees just days before the news went public. Hopefully we’ll find out more about the timeline in the coming days.

Via HAH.