Scooter Libby is going down
October 25, 2005News & Politics
Guess who told Scooter about Valerie Plame:
I. Lewis Libby Jr., Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, first learned about the C.I.A. officer at the heart of the leak investigation in a conversation with Mr. Cheney weeks before her identity became public in 2003, lawyers involved in the case said Monday.
Notes of the previously undisclosed conversation between Mr. Libby and Mr. Cheney on June 12, 2003, appear to differ from Mr. Libby’s testimony to a federal grand jury that he initially learned about the C.I.A. officer, Valerie Wilson, from journalists, the lawyers said.
The notes, taken by Mr. Libby during the conversation, for the first time place Mr. Cheney in the middle of an effort by the White House to learn about Ms. Wilson’s husband, Joseph C. Wilson IV, who was questioning the administration’s handling of intelligence about Iraq’s nuclear program to justify the war. [LINK]Oops! While this most definitely spells bad news for Libby, who can now be indicted for "an illegal effort to impede the inquiry," the fate of his mentor remains murky. There is nothing illegal about the conversation itself, and there is no evidence as yet that Cheney knew either about Plame's undercover status or Libby's cosy little chats with reporters. Still none of this is good news for George Bush who, with Rove and Cheney otherwise occupied, is facing the grim possibility of intellectual exertion.
