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More Allegations of Libby Lies Revealed
Judge's Report Shows Cheney Aide Is Accused Of Broad Deception
By Carol D. Leonnig
Washington Post Staff Writer
02/04/06 "Washington
Post" -- -- 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.
All three specific allegations are contained in previously
redacted sections of a U.S. Court of Appeals opinion that were
released yesterday. The opinion analyzed Fitzgerald's secret
evidence to determine whether his case warranted ordering
reporters to testify about their confidential conversations with
sources.
Fitzgerald revealed none of these specifics when he publicly
announced Libby's indictment in October on charges of making
false statements, perjury and obstruction of justice.
The once-sealed portions of the federal court opinion were
written in February 2005 by U.S. Circuit Judge David S. Tatel,
who was a member of a three-judge panel that agreed with
Fitzgerald that the testimony of two reporters, Miller and Time
magazine's Matthew Cooper, was crucial to his investigation.
Yesterday, the same panel concluded that because Libby was
indicted and now faced public charges, the court no longer had
to keep secret many of the details of the grand jury
investigation that Tatel analyzed. Dow Jones Inc., parent
company of the Wall Street Journal, had petitioned the court to
release the eight-page Tatel opinion. Three of the pages were
redacted.
Attorneys for Libby and Fleischer and a spokesman for Fitzgerald
declined to comment yesterday.
Since January 2004, Fitzgerald has been investigating whether
senior Bush administration officials knowingly leaked Plame's
identity to discredit allegations made by her husband, former
ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV. Plame's name and her CIA role
were first mentioned publicly in a column by syndicated
columnist Robert D. Novak on July 14, 2003, eight days after
Wilson publicly accused the administration of twisting
intelligence to justify a war with Iraq.
According to Tatel's summary of the evidence that Fitzgerald
presented in the court's chambers in August 2004, the prosecutor
had at least a good circumstantial case on perjury but charging
Libby with intentionally leaking classified information was
"currently off the table," though it could be "viable" if he
gained new evidence.
Tatel wrote that interviewing Miller would be crucial to making
that decision, because Libby might have mentioned to her that he
knew Plame's status was covert. He concluded that simply lying
about a national security matter was serious enough to warrant
ordering the reporters to testify about their conversations with
Libby.
"While it is true that on the current record the special
counsel's strongest charges are for perjury and false statements
rather than security-related crimes ... perjury in this context
is itself a crime with national security implications," he
wrote.
The information gives a fuller picture of the case that
Fitzgerald will likely put on against Libby. Yesterday, a
federal judge scheduled his trial to start on Jan. 8, 2007.
In public remarks about the indictment, Fitzgerald has accused
Libby of lying when he said that he believed he first learned of
Plame from NBC reporter Tim Russert and passed along that
information strictly as unverified gossip to Miller and Cooper.
Tatel's opinion also includes previously unknown details about
testimony by Libby and other officials. For example, Libby
acknowledged to investigators that Cheney told him in mid-June
2003 about Plame's CIA role and said she helped send her husband
on a mission to Niger to determine whether Iraq was seeking
nuclear material from the African nation.
That was soon after a Washington Post article on Wilson's Niger
trip appeared. Libby emphasized in his testimony that Cheney
only said it "in an off sort of curiosity sort of fashion."
Fitzgerald also contended that Libby lied to the grand jury when
he said he never mentioned Plame or her CIA job to Fleischer
when they had lunch on July 7. Fleischer recalled before the
grand jury that Libby did mention Plame and said she worked in
the "counterproliferation area of the CIA." Fleischer said Libby
stressed that "the vice president did not send Ambassador Wilson
to Niger . . . the CIA sent Ambassador Wilson to Niger . . . he
was sent by his wife."
Fleischer added that he thought the lunch was "kind of weird"
because the normally "closed-lip" Libby was sharing confidences
and remarking that the information was "hush-hush" and "on the
q.t."
Libby was also asked about two July conversations he had with
Miller. He said he never mentioned Wilson's wife to Miller in
the first conversation but passed along some information another
reporter told him about Plame in the second, according to the
documents.
Miller testified last year, however, that she thought Libby was
the first government official to mention Wilson's wife to her
and that he did so in three conversations: on June 23, when she
visited his office in the Executive Office Building, and on July
8 and 12.
© 2006 The Washington Post Company
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