Libby Told Prosecutors He Learned of Plame From Cheney
Well, if anybody still cares (sorry to Muslim cartoon controversy fans – I just don’t feel like inflaming this situation any further – it’s time for everyone to step back and get a grip), there has been a new revelation in the PlameGate controversy, one that doesn’t bode too well for Scooter Libby or the Vice President:
Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff told prosecutors that Mr. Cheney had informed him “in an off sort of curiosity sort of fashion” in mid-June 2003 about the identity of the C.I.A. officer at the heart of the leak case, according to a formerly secret legal opinion, parts of which were made public on Friday.
The newly released pages were part of a legal opinion written in February 2005 by Judge David S. Tatel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. His opinion disclosed that the former chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby Jr., acknowledged to prosecutors that he had heard directly from Mr. Cheney about the Central Intelligence Agency officer, Valerie Wilson, more than a month before her identity was first publicly disclosed on July 14, 2003, by a newspaper columnist.
“Nevertheless,” Judge Tatel wrote, “Libby maintains that he was learning about Wilson’s wife’s identity for the first time when he spoke with NBC Washington Bureau Chief Tim Russert on July 10 or 11.” Mr. Russert denied Mr. Libby’s account. Ms. Wilson is married to Joseph C. Wilson IV, a former ambassador who has criticized the Bush administration’s Iraq policy.
Over all, the new material amplified and provided new details on charges outlined in the October 2005 indictment against Mr. Libby. The indictment accused Mr. Libby of falsely telling investigators that he had first learned about Ms. Wilson from reporters, when he had, according to the charging document, learned of it from other government officials like Mr. Cheney.
The following is not good news for the man named Scooter, either:
The newly disclosed information provides new details about other events, like a previously reported lunch on July 7, 2003, in which Mr. Libby told Ari Fleischer, then the White House press secretary, about Ms. Wilson.
In his opinion, Judge Tatel said that Mr. Fleischer said that Mr. Libby had told him that Ms. Wilson sent had her husband on a trip to Africa to examine intelligence reports indicating that Iraq had sought to buy uranium ore from Niger.
Judge Tatel wrote that Mr. Fleischer had described the lunch to prosecutors as having been “kind of weird” and had noted that Mr. Libby typically “operated in a very closed-lip fashion.” Judge Tatel added: “Fleischer recalled that Libby ‘added something along the lines of, you know, this is hush hush, nobody knows about this. This is on the q.t.’ “
Hmmm…the WaPo’s take is even harsher:
The special prosecutor in the CIA leak case alleged that Vice President Cheney’s former chief of staff was engaged in a broader web of deception than was previously known and repeatedly lied to conceal that he had been a key source for reporters about undercover operative Valerie Plame, according to court records released yesterday.
The records also show that by August 2004, early in his investigation of the disclosure of Plame’s identity, Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald had concluded that he did not have much of a case against I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby for illegally leaking classified information. Instead, Fitzgerald was focused on charging Cheney’s top aide with perjury and making false statements, and knew he needed to question reporters to prove it.
The court records show that Libby denied to a grand jury that he ever mentioned Plame or her CIA job to then-White House press secretary Ari Fleischer or then-New York Times reporter Judith Miller in separate conversations he had with each of them in early July 2003. The records also suggest that Libby did not disclose to investigators that he first spoke to Miller about Plame in June 2003, and that prosecutors learned of the nature of the conversation only when Miller finally testified late in the fall of 2005.
So…if an aspen turns in the forest, does a person in jail make a sound?…The answer appears to be affirmative…
Might have been better if he instead lied about knowing of her covert status. That, perhaps, could have been an easier lie to protect.
Do these “reports” really represent any new information, or are they simply a recapitulation of the prosecutions allegations for which Libby was indicted?
If the former, then I agree that they do not bode well; if the latter, then, wake me when the trial starts next year…
Well, they come from documents that were unsealed following a lawsuit by the Wall Street Journal to gain access…so the documents aren’t new, but their contents have not been publicly available before…
Comrades,
Well, the problem for Mr. Libby is that he may well have comitted the same crime as Bill Clinton: He lied under oath. Valerie Plame wasn’t working as a covert agent, and in fact, her husband had often spoken of her working for the CIA to other people, apparently at parties and other social gatherings. No one was outed, no crime of that sort was comitted.
What was alledgedly comitted was a crime of lying under oath, and folks OUGHT to take that seriously. Lying while under oath simply cannot be tolerated, as it attacks the very foundation of our justice system.
Mr. Libby will have his day in court, and I, for one, am willing to suspend judgement upon him and/or his actions until that time. If he is innocent, then he deserves our support. If he is found guilty, then I will support whatever punishment the court sees fit to impose. He should, in fact, be treated more critically than an “ordinary” person, his proximation to the very epicenter of power must needs demand from him a higher standard of conduct.
Respects to all,
Gwedd
Yes, Gwedd, it does appear that is the case…and it is a serious offense, you’re right…