Prosecutor: Cheney 'Deeply Involved' In CIA Leak
NBC-10
MSNBC reports the special prosecutor in Valerie Plame case says Vice President Dick Cheney was "deeply involved" in the CIA leak about Plame.
NBC's David Schuster says prosecutors believe "Cheney wrote out what (aid Scooter) Libby should say in a conversation with New York Times reporter Matt Cooper."
In that conversation between Libby, who was Cheney's chief of staff, and Cooper, Libby reportedly brought up Plame's name.
Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald used his opening statement in the CIA leak trial Tuesday to describe a tumultuous week early in the Iraq war, when he said the White House was "under direct attack" and pushed back against criticism by former ambassador Joseph Wilson, Plame's husband.
Fitzgerald said Cheney told Libby, in 2003 that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA and Libby spread that information to reporters. When that information got out, it triggered a federal investigation.
"But when the FBI and grand jury asked about what the defendant did," Fitzgerald said, "he made up a story."
I. Lewis Libby is charged with perjury and obstruction. He told investigators he was surprised to learn Wilson's wife's identity from NBC News reporter Tim Russert, not from the vice president. But Fitzgerald told jurors that was clearly a lie because Libby had already been discussing the matter inside and outside of the White House.
"You can't learn something on Thursday that you're giving out on Monday," Fitzgerald said.
Libby says he didn't lie but was simply bogged down by national security issues and couldn't remember details of what he told reporters about CIA officer Valerie Plame.
Fitzgerald believes Libby feared political embarrassment and worried he might lose his job for discussing classified information with reporters. President Bush originally threatened to fire anyone who disclosed such information so, Fitzgerald says Libby had a reason to lie.
The jury of nine women and three men will spend more than a month listening to conflicting statements from members of the Bush administration and journalists, trying to sort out the truth.
Libby's defense attorneys, William Jeffress and Theodore Wells, spent days trying to weed critics of the Bush administration out of the jury pool. In a city where Democrats outnumber Republicans more than 9-to-1, that wasn't easy. The final panel contains four people who criticized or doubted the administration's war policies.
Fitzgerald told jurors Tuesday that the trial isn't about the war but that the case will be set against the backdrop of the first months of the invasion. He is expected to tell jurors that the White House was preoccupied with discrediting Wilson's criticisms, so it's unlikely Libby forgot that effort.
Libby plans to testify and tell jurors he had many other issues on his mind at the time, such as terrorist threats and emerging nuclear programs overseas.
Attorneys say they expect Cheney to testify for the defense. Historians say that would be a first for a sitting vice president.
NBC-10
MSNBC reports the special prosecutor in Valerie Plame case says Vice President Dick Cheney was "deeply involved" in the CIA leak about Plame.
NBC's David Schuster says prosecutors believe "Cheney wrote out what (aid Scooter) Libby should say in a conversation with New York Times reporter Matt Cooper."
In that conversation between Libby, who was Cheney's chief of staff, and Cooper, Libby reportedly brought up Plame's name.
Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald used his opening statement in the CIA leak trial Tuesday to describe a tumultuous week early in the Iraq war, when he said the White House was "under direct attack" and pushed back against criticism by former ambassador Joseph Wilson, Plame's husband.
Fitzgerald said Cheney told Libby, in 2003 that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA and Libby spread that information to reporters. When that information got out, it triggered a federal investigation.
"But when the FBI and grand jury asked about what the defendant did," Fitzgerald said, "he made up a story."
I. Lewis Libby is charged with perjury and obstruction. He told investigators he was surprised to learn Wilson's wife's identity from NBC News reporter Tim Russert, not from the vice president. But Fitzgerald told jurors that was clearly a lie because Libby had already been discussing the matter inside and outside of the White House.
"You can't learn something on Thursday that you're giving out on Monday," Fitzgerald said.
Libby says he didn't lie but was simply bogged down by national security issues and couldn't remember details of what he told reporters about CIA officer Valerie Plame.
Fitzgerald believes Libby feared political embarrassment and worried he might lose his job for discussing classified information with reporters. President Bush originally threatened to fire anyone who disclosed such information so, Fitzgerald says Libby had a reason to lie.
The jury of nine women and three men will spend more than a month listening to conflicting statements from members of the Bush administration and journalists, trying to sort out the truth.
Libby's defense attorneys, William Jeffress and Theodore Wells, spent days trying to weed critics of the Bush administration out of the jury pool. In a city where Democrats outnumber Republicans more than 9-to-1, that wasn't easy. The final panel contains four people who criticized or doubted the administration's war policies.
Fitzgerald told jurors Tuesday that the trial isn't about the war but that the case will be set against the backdrop of the first months of the invasion. He is expected to tell jurors that the White House was preoccupied with discrediting Wilson's criticisms, so it's unlikely Libby forgot that effort.
Libby plans to testify and tell jurors he had many other issues on his mind at the time, such as terrorist threats and emerging nuclear programs overseas.
Attorneys say they expect Cheney to testify for the defense. Historians say that would be a first for a sitting vice president.
