This is the story I am sure (I have not had time to check) everyone is blogging about today:
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…
Mr. Libby’s notes indicate that Mr. Cheney had gotten his information about Ms. Wilson from George J. Tenet, the director of central intelligence, in response to questions from the vice president about Mr. Wilson. But they contain no suggestion that either Mr. Cheney or Mr. Libby knew at the time of Ms. Wilson’s undercover status or that her identity was classified. Disclosing a covert agent’s identity can be a crime, but only if the person who discloses it knows the agent’s undercover status.
While I am sure Armando and Arianna had to take a cold shower because this seems to involve Cheney, I don’t think it means little more than the fact that Scooter Libby is in deep trouble. As VP, Cheney is pretty much allowed to discuss these things with George Tenet and Scooter Libby- I think they have the requisite security clearance. What Libby and Rove did with that info is another thing, however, and Libby appears to have lied tothe Grand Jury- if all the previous reports are accurate about his testimony regarding this issue.
As always, I will hand it over to ‘Right wing running dog’ Tom Maguire.
kl
Yeah, b-but Cheney! Heart attacks! MEAN!!!
T Miller
It is not comforting to know that that people that you elected, and their closest advisors, have been making misleading statements (some would say lies). The Vice President in particular misled us about both WMD’s and his knowledge of the Wilson trip and report. Maybe that is why Mr. Cheney has been hiding from the press, except an occasional phone call to his friend Rush.
Davebo
What?
You mean this isn’t Cheney’s Mushroom Cloud?
You’re correct of course, this doesn’t seem to implicate any legal liability for Cheney.
And since he long ago lost all politicall credibility what possible difference could it make?
Krista
At least there’s no fingering being mentioned…
Lines
I think the hope is is that there is verifyable evidence, or a Libby testimony, that links and order given by Cheney to discredit Wilson by outting his wife.
But I don’t think thats going to happen. For what its worth, Libby and the rest of the scum will remain loyal. Party before country before the people.
neil
John, this, I think, is the money quote.
Mr. Cheney was interviewed under oath by Mr. Fitzgerald last year. It is not known what the vice president told Mr. Fitzgerald about the conversation with Mr. Libby or when Mr. Fitzgerald first learned of it.
I have a hard time believing that Cheney’s testimony was truthful in this case. It would be pointless for Libby to lie under oath to protect his boss if his boss is just going to tell the truth and prove Libby’s perjury. It makes much more sense that they got their stories straight and Fitzgerald caught them both in a perjury trap.
But who leaked this information? That’s what I want to know. Someone somewhere speculated that they’ve determined that the only way to save this Presidency is to throw Cheney out of the lifeboat. So Rove is cooperating, he turned this stuff over, and now he’s leaking it to the press to lay the groundwork for Cheney’s resignation. Then Bush appoints a veep who can go on to run in 2008, and everybody’s happy.
Lines
If Cheney would just give up his habit of brain eatting, I’m sure this would all blow over like last week’s news.
jcricket
John, I agree that a discussion on its own is not a crime, considering everyone involved had security clearance. However, having security clearance doesn’t give you immunity from prosecution if the purpose of your discussion was to organize a conspiracy to commit a crime.
Just like lawyer/client privilege is not license to cover up an ongoing crime.
I’m not sure if this is what Cheney did, but his direct involvement and (apparent) contradictory testimony certainly can’t help his staff’s predicament.
DougJ
Darrell and DG don’t seem to be here, but if they’re reading this, I’d like to know what they think of the possibility of Cheney resigning. I have the feeling that a lot of Bush supporters wouldn’t be that opposed to getting rid of Big Time.
jcricket
Forgot to add – Of the few leaks, none of them point to an exoneration of administration officials or point towards the whole “Wilson is a liar/fraud” issue. While I’m not betting on the “22 indictments including Cheney” theory, I certainly think things look worse now for the administration than they did a year ago.
Tim F
Scottie Mac, this morning (no link):
As far as I can tell Mac didn’t use the word ‘confidence’ once. Kremlinologically-speaking, this is the same non-distance distancing that we heard before Drownie resigned.
slide
Well, it does mean a few other things. It means that if Cheney didn’t tell Fitz of his imvolvement he may be in a whole shit load of legal jeopardy. It means that when Bush said he wants to get to the bottom of the leak investigation he was either lying or being deceived by his own vice president. It means that the whole defense that Plame’s name only came up in talks with reporters to be complete lies. It means that Cheney must have known that Plame had covert status unless one assumes that Tenent would fail to mention that rather salient fact. It means that Cheney et al were in “smear Joe Wilson” mode well before Wilson came out publically disputing the administration’s nuclear claims. It means that Cheney was lying when he denied knowing anything about Joe Wilson three months after Tenant gave him the information on Wilson’s wife. Damn… it means a whole lotta shit John if one doesn’t have an apologist mindset all the time.
Otto Man
The question here is — what did Cheney tell Fitzgerald? Because if his private testimony (given under oath) was at all in keeping with his public testimony at the time — and you think it would have to be, right? — then he would’ve insisted to Fitzgerald that he knew nothing about Joe Wilson or his wife’s role in the CIA. Because that was his story before the press, over and over again.
In other words, this new leak suggests that Cheney knew all along — before Libby and the outing — and therefore he may have well lied to the grand jury. I think the odds of Cheney getting indicted are small, but it’s certainly within the realm of possibility.
Scooter, however, has clearly been thrown under the train. I wonder how happy he is about that, and whether he’ll be looking for a little payback now?
Geek, Esq.
There’s still a ton we don’t know. If you add up everything leaked to the press by lawyers involved in the case, it just doesn’t add up.
Fitzgerald has something–I have no clue what–that has completely evaded detection.
Gratefulcub
I love it. Everytime a new nugget pops up, the response is “not a big deal, doesn’t prove anything.” Every time, they are absolutely right, that little fact doesn’t prove anything. BUT, all those nuggets together mean one thing:
We have been told a heaping helping of lies. I don’t know who told them, but somebody did. We have 5 versions of everything, and they can’t all be true.
slide
Oh…. this is interesting.
.
Gratefulcub
Time to save yourself boys, this ship is sinking, don’t go down with it. The captain certainly doesn’t plan on going down with the ship.
ppGaz
Heh.