McCain denies knowing anything about meeting between his staffer, John Weaver, and Ms. Iseman, although Weaver did tell top McCain aides in December

First point for the media to take note of: John Weaver is not an anonymous source.

At his press conference today, John McCain stated repeatedly that he did not know about meetings arranged by a former top aide, John Weaver, with Ms. Iseman, the lobbyist. "I did not know anything about it" were his exact words. But, Weaver, who told his story to the NY Times also informed the McCain campaign about this issue in December. How could McCain not know? Something doesn't add up.

The NY Times piece has this interaction with John Weaver:

Separately, a top McCain aide met with Ms. Iseman at Union Station in Washington to ask her to stay away from the senator. John Weaver, a former top strategist and now an informal campaign adviser, said in an e-mail message that he arranged the meeting after “a discussion among the campaign leadership” about her.

“Our political messaging during that time period centered around taking on the special interests and placing the nation’s interests before either personal or special interest,” Mr. Weaver continued. “Ms. Iseman’s involvement in the campaign, it was felt by us, could undermine that effort.”

Mr. Weaver added that the brief conversation was only about “her conduct and what she allegedly had told people, which made its way back to us.” He declined to elaborate.

More after the jump...

According to Jonathan Martin, who covers the Republican side at the Politico, Weaver informed the top echelons at the McCain campaign last December about providing this information to the Times:

John Weaver, formerly McCain's top strategist, tells Politico that after hearing repeatedly from Times reporters working on the story he asked for written questions and then provided an email response.

"They asked about the Union Station meeting and so I answered their questions," Weaver says. "I forwarded it to Steve, Charlie and Mark within minutes of sending it to the Times."

Steve Schmidt, Charlie Black and Mark Salter are all top advisers to McCain.

So, let's figure this out. This major story was brewing. The entire McCain operation was focusing on it last December -- bringing in power lawyer Bob Bennett. John Weaver tells the NY Times about his meeting with Iseman. Weaver then tells the McCain campaign what he told the Times. But, McCain "did not know anything about it." Really?