Libby Trial: Grand Jury Tape At Odds With Witnesses

At least six witnesses -- Administration officials and journalists -- have testified for the prosecution at the jury trial of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. All insist that they discussed former diplomat Joe Wilson and his wife with Libby prior to 12 July 2003. On that day, Libby talked with Time magazine's Matt Cooper. Libby's taped testimony about that conversation, part of the 2004 grand jury investigation, contradicts all those witnesses:

And I said [to Cooper], reporters are telling us that [former Ambassador Joseph Wilson's wife works at the CIA], I don't know if it's true. I was careful about that because among other things, I wanted to be clear I didn't know Mr. Wilson. I don't know – I think I said, I don't know if he has a wife, but this is what we're hearing.

And yet...

Vice President Dick Cheney's current chief of staff, David Addington--testified that Libby had asked him about the paperwork the CIA would keep if an officer had sent a spouse on a trip. And a Libby note from early June 2003, introduced as evidence by both the prosecution and the defense, indicates that Cheney told Libby, his chief of staff at the time, that Wilson's wife was employed at the CIA's Counterproliferation Division, a unit in the agency's clandestine operations directorate.

And then there's this:

In response to methodical questioning by [Patrick] Fitzgerald during two grand jury appearances in March 2004, Libby said that he did not remember discussing Plame with a former CIA official, Robert Grenier. Two weeks ago, Grenier testified that Libby telephoned him out of the blue to ask about a CIA-sponsored mission to the African nation of Niger -- and was so eager to find out that he called back three hours later and pulled Grenier out of a meeting with Tenet.

No wonder special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald asked the grand jury to charge Libby with perjury. At least if one subscribes to Occam's Razor.

Most of America has moved on, so speak, leaving the Libby saga to yesteryear. I wonder if they'd be so sanguine if they heard this unedited transcript. The BTC News paraphrase should raise eyebrows.

Fitzpatrick is questioning Libby about the leaked National Intelligence Estimate. Libby insists that Vice President Cheney got President Bush to declassify portions of the document, in order to rebut Wilson's claims about Nigerian yellowcake. (History has proven Wilson, not Bush, the more accurate storyteller.)

F: Was it a declassified or a classified document that you were authorized to release to Miller?

L: Declassified, because the President authorized it.

F: Had you ever been authorized before to talk with the press about a classified document?

L: No.

F: Have you been authorized to do so since then?

L: No.

F: This was the only time in your career when this happened?

L: Yes.

It's the only time in his career -- yet he had a convenient case of amnesia when called before the grand jury investigating the leak. No wonder President Bush pledged to sack any staffer who had leaked info: it's not a "leak" if the Prez says it's OK!

Talking about the "declassified" NIE may not have been a leak -- but I believe history will show that this effort to discredit Joe Wilson was an unprecedented exertion of deliberate -- and decidedly political -- Presidential deception.

See also:

• Plame Timeline
• Who Are The Players

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