Throwing The Big Dog Under The Bus
Thursday, April 06, 2006
A former White House aide under indictment for obstructing a leak probe, I. Lewis Libby, testified to a grand jury that he gave information from a closely-guarded "National Intelligence Estimate" on Iraq to a New York Times reporter in 2003 with the specific permission of President Bush, according to a new court filing from the special prosecutor in the case, THE NEW YORK SUN reports Thursday.
"The court papers from the prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, do not suggest that Mr. Bush violated any law or rule. However, the new disclosure could be awkward for the president because it places him, for the first time, directly in a chain of events that led to a meeting where prosecutors contend the identity of a CIA employee, Valerie Plame, was provided to a reporter."
In a court filing late Wednesday responding to requests from Mr. Libby's attorneys for government records that might aid his defense, Mr. Fitzgerald shed new light on Mr. Libby's claims that he was authorized to provide sensitive information to the Times reporter, Judith Miller, at a meeting on July 8, 2003.
"Defendant testified that he was specifically authorized in advance of the meeting to disclose the key judgments of the classified NIE to Miller on that occasion because it was thought that the NIE was ‘pretty definitive' against what Ambassador Wilson had said and that the vice president thought that it was ‘very important' for the key judgments of the NIE to come out," Mr. Fitzgerald wrote.
Mr. Libby is said to have testified that "at first" he rebuffed Mr. Cheney's suggestion to release the information because the estimate was classified. However, according to the vice presidential aide, Mr. Cheney subsequently said he got permission for the release directly from Mr. Bush. "Defendant testified that the vice president later advised him that the president had authorized defendant to disclose the relevant portions of the NIE," the prosecution filing said.
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Leave it to Libby to stay true to his boss and throw Bush under the bus on this one. If this is true it means that Cheney went to Bush who said yes to outing Valerie Plame. At that point Libby set the plan in motion. I can't wait for the MSM to pick this up, I hope they don't pass it over for the usual fluff they like to report and call news. Who cares if Katie Couric is going to CBS no one will watch her anyways so its no big deal. McClellan is probably dreading today's press meeting since you know this will come up. He will play the denial and deflect game all afternoon. Drudge didn't spash it as a headline, just a link, looks like he wants to bury this one.
Posted by mardenhill 4/06/2006 10:53:00 AM
1 Comment:
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2:01 PM
Excellent, love it! »
