Washington ? Nearly seven in 10 Americans believe a special prosecutor should be named to investigate allegations that Bush administration officials illegally leaked the name of an undercover CIA agent, according to a Washington Post/ABC News poll released Wednesday.

The poll, taken after the Justice Department announced that it had opened a criminal probe into the matter, pointed to several troubling signs for the White House as Bush aides decide how to contain the damage. The survey found that 81 percent of Americans considered the matter serious, while 72 percent thought it likely that someone in the White House leaked the agent’s name.

Confronted with little public support for the White House view that the investigation should be handled by the Justice Department, Bush aides began Wednesday to adjust their response to the expanding probe. They reined in earlier sweeping portrayals of innocence in favor of more technical arguments that it was possible the disclosure was made without knowledge that a covert operative was being exposed and therefore may not have been a crime.

Meanwhile, the New York Times on its Web site Wednesday was reporting that deep political ties between top White House aides and Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft have put him into a delicate position as the Justice Department opens its investigation into the leak.

Karl Rove, Bush’s top political adviser, whose possible role in the leak has raised questions, was a paid consultant to three of Ashcroft’s campaigns in Missouri, twice for governor and for United States senator, in the 1980s and 1990s, an associate of Rove told the Times on Wednesday.

And Jack Oliver, deputy finance chairman of Bush’s 2004 re-election campaign, was director of Ashcroft’s 1994 Senate campaign, and later worked as Ashcroft’s deputy chief of staff.

Breaking ranks

As the White House hunkered down, it got the first taste of criticism from within Bush’s own party. Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., said in a CNBC interview that Bush “needs to get this behind him” by taking a more active role.

At the same time, administration allies outside the White House stepped up a counteroffensive that seeks to discredit the administration’s main accuser, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, whose wife was named as a CIA operative. Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie gave a string of television interviews with the three-part message that the Justice Department is investigating, the White House is fully cooperating and that Wilson has a political agenda and has made “rash statements.”

“He is someone, given his politics, who is obviously prone to think the worst of this White House,” Gillespie said by telephone.

Probe gears up

With Tuesday’s announcement that a full criminal investigation into the leaks was under way, the federal government’s investigative apparatus began to reassemble. An FBI spokeswoman said the bureau has assembled a team of agents experienced in leak investigations to conduct the probe.

At the White House, officials said they would examine their files and phone logs and preserve message slips and notes that could relate to the investigation. While Bush was quiet on the topic Wednesday, the subject filled 22 of 24 pages in the transcript of the daily White House press briefing.

Bush press secretary Scott McClellan made clear he was limiting his public claims related to the probe. He said that he would not vouch for individual aides’ innocence over the leaks other than his statement that Rove “didn’t condone that kind of activity and was not involved in that kind of activity.”

McClellan also limited his defense of White House aides to narrow legal matters. On Monday, he said, “There’s been nothing, absolutely nothing, brought to our attention to suggest any White House involvement, and that includes the vice president’s office as well.”

McClellan did not deny any general White House effort to discredit Wilson at the time of the original leak. “The issue here is whether or not someone leaked classified information,” he said Wednesday. Later, adding, “I’m drawing a line here. I’m not going to play the game of going down other rabbit trails.”

The name of Wilson’s wife and her status as a CIA employee was published in a syndicated column days after Wilson wrote an article casting doubt on the administration’s claim that Iraq had sought nuclear materials in Niger. The columnist, Robert Novak, said two senior administration officials had identified Wilson’s wife.