Libby Outs Cheney?
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in The Plame Game
Well, this is certainly an interesting (and potentially sad) turn of events….
Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff, I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, testified to a federal grand jury that he had been “authorized” by Cheney and other White House “superiors” in the summer of 2003 to disclose classified information to journalists to defend the Bush administration’s use of prewar intelligence in making the case to go to war with Iraq, according to attorneys familiar with the matter, and to court records.Libby specifically claimed that in one instance he had been authorized to divulge portions of a then-still highly classified National Intelligence Estimate regarding Saddam Hussein’s purported efforts to develop nuclear weapons, according to correspondence recently filed in federal court by special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald.
Beyond what was stated in the court paper, say people with firsthand knowledge of the matter, Libby also indicated what he will offer as a broad defense during his upcoming criminal trial: that Vice President Cheney and other senior Bush administration officials had earlier encouraged and authorized him to share classified information with journalists to build public support for going to war. Later, after the war began in 2003, Cheney authorized Libby to release additional classified information, including details of the NIE, to defend the administration’s use of prewar intelligence in making the case for war.
If this is true…jeezus. Andrew Sullivan and I share the same sentiments (emphasis mine):
So some intelligence matters are so important that the administration will not divulge them even to critical members of Congress. But others are leaked to journalists to win a political war. This is a pointed reminder that when the administration says it is withholding information to protect national security, a hefty dose of skepticism is in order. The same goes for their assurance that their wire-tapping has never been abused. Remind me again: at this point, why should we trust them?
But that doesn’t mean that Libby is going to roll over on Cheney…
William Jeffress, Libby’s lawyer, said, “There is no truth at all” to suggestions that Libby would try to shift blame to his superiors as a defense against the charges.
He’s not going to shift blame? He already did!
However, it looks like Scooter is going to use the graymail defense:
Graymail is a defense gambit not available to most criminal suspects. But years ago defense attorneys representing clients connected to the national security establishment–say, a former CIA employee gone bad–figured out a way to squeeze the government in order to win the case: Claim you need access to loads of classified information in order to mount a defense–more than might truly be necessary. Of course, the government is going to put up a fight. It may release some information–but not everything a thorough defense attorney will say is needed. The goal is to get the government to say no to the informant. Then the defense attorney can attempt to convince the judge that without access to this material he or she cannot put up an adequate defense. If the lawyer succeeds, it’s case dismissed. In such situations, the defendant is essentially saying, Prosecute me and I’ll blow whatever government secrets I can. Isn’t that the act of a patriot?
Whew…stay tuned for more on this one. This story just got a helluva lot more interesting.
This entry was posted on Thursday, February 9th, 2006 and is filed under The Plame Game. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
February 9th, 2006 at 10:51 pm
If he said Cheney authorized the release of Plame specificaly, then it’s a BIG deal.
If he said Cheney authorized the release of then classified information without a timely notification to congress or the intel committee’s then it’s a big deal.
But isn’t the classification, and declassification of information under the authority of the Executive? In that case, unless either of the two above occurred, then this is no big deal. There might be other info, and I might be wrong, I freely admit that I don’t have a thorough understanding of this. But “classified information” and “Plame” aren’t at all a big deal in terms of Libby, or cheney.
February 10th, 2006 at 12:23 am
Well, I don’t know, so that’s why I’m laying off judging this too quickly. But it seems to me that Libby was leaking “classified” information, not declassifying it and then leaking it. But again, I’m not sure. I’m positive we’ll find out more about this in the coming days.
February 10th, 2006 at 12:41 am
Me either, however, the hoopla this has caused seems to me WAY overblown.
Another problem I have with journalism in general, well, actually the sort of journalism that praises the ability of a paper to get the “big gets” and other such references is that they rationalize their overhyped headlines by saying, “it’s important to raise questions.”
Thats fine, raise questions, but, do they realize that if their main argument is “we are asking the questions!” then they are admitting their ignorance? I agree, with you theres a reason to keep an eye on this possibility of libby and cheney, but for the article to insinuate an answer, when it is in truth only a question is very offensive, and not at all helpful to the reputation of honest reporting.
BTW Justing, thanks for your honest reporting.
February 10th, 2006 at 3:27 am
[...] This is an incredibly important point because it speaks to exactly what type of info was leaked. See, according to this story, that information was still top secret when Libby talked about it, and if his superiors (namely Cheney, according to the National Journal) told him to disclose these facts prior to the document being open, that’s significant and damaging. [...]
February 10th, 2006 at 3:36 am
You may want to look at my latest post about this. Apparently the info Scooter leaked was indeed classified. At least according to the NY Times.
The compliment is appreciated. That’s what we’re about here. Keep reading, commenting and challenging.