Lawyers said the notes show that Mr. Cheney knew that Ms. Wilson worked at the C.I.A. more than a month before her identity was made public and her undercover status was disclosed in a syndicated column by Robert D. Novak on July 14, 2003.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.
Libby first told investigators that he learned that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA from journalists.
That apparent discrepancy in his testimony suggests why prosecutors are weighing false statement charges against him in what they interpret as an effort by Mr. Libby to protect Mr. Cheney from scrutiny, the lawyers said.
I'll note here that a false statement charge is what prosecutors use when people lie to federal officials and are not under oath before the grand jury. In that case it would be perjury.
Lawyers say Libby and Cheney had no idea Valerie Wilson, as they call her, was covert or that the information 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. It would not be illegal for either Mr. Cheney or Mr. Libby, both of whom are presumably cleared to know the government�s deepest secrets, to discuss a C.I.A. officer or her link to a critic of the administration.
But, here's the rub: If Fitzgerald and the grand jury believe Libby tried to direct the investigation away from this conversation with Cheney, Libby is also facing an obstruction of justice count.
But any effort by Mr. Libby to steer investigators away from his conversation with Mr. Cheney could be considered by Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the special counsel in the case, to be an illegal effort to impede the inquiry.
What did Cheney know about Valerie (non-Plame) Wilson?
The notes do not show that Mr. Cheney knew the name of Mr. Wilson�s wife. But they do show that Mr. Cheney did know and told Mr. Libby that Ms. Wilson was employed by the C.I.A. and that she may have helped arrange her husband�s trip.
It gets complicated here. Tenet, although interviewed by Fitzgerald, was never called to the grand jury, according to a former intelligence official.
Mr. Tenet was not available for comment on Monday night. But another former senior intelligence official said that Mr. Tenet had been interviewed by the special prosecutor and his staff in early 2004, and never appeared before the grand jury. Mr. Tenet has not talked since then to the prosecutors, the former official said.
The former official said he strongly doubted that the White House learned about Ms. Plame from Mr. Tenet.
June 12 was not only the date of the Libby-Cheney conversation, but the date Walter Pincus published his WaPo article :
On June 12, 2003, the day of the conversation between Mr. Cheney and Mr. Libby, the Washington Post published a front page story reporting that the C.I.A. had sent a retired American diplomat to the Niger in February 2002 to investigate claims that Iraq had been seeking to buy uranium there. The story did not name the diplomat, who turned out to be Mr. Wilson, but it reported that his mission had not corroborated a claim about Iraq�s pursuit of nuclear material that the White House had subsequently used in Mr. Bush�s 2003 State of the Union address.
Judith Miller also implies that Libby was falling on his sword for Cheney in her NY Times article:
In her testimony to the grand jury, Judith Miller, a reporter for the New York Times said that Mr. Libby sought from the start of her three conversations with him to "insulate his boss from Mr. Wilson�s charges."
Some questions:
- Why is there no mention of a perjury charge? Did Libby come clean during his second grand jury appearance, or unbeknownst to us, was there a third...after Judith Miller testified?
- Is a false statement or obstruction charge being readied against Dick Cheney for his statements to investigators in 2004? Did he tell them, as he said on Meet the Press in September, 2003, that he first learned of Wilson and his trip to Africa after Wilson's op-ed in the paper? Or did he come clean with investigators, thereby unwittingly setting Libby up to take a fall?
- Why wasn't George Tenet called before the grand jury after Fitzgerald discovered Libby's notes? Surely he could confirm or deny telling Cheney about Valerie (non-Plame) Wilson? Was George Tenet Robert Novak's source? Did Tenet cooperate after Novak did? Did he testify voluntarily and not tell anyone? Or, is he also looking at a false statement charge? Or, was it not Tenet, but David Wurmser who told Libby and Cheney? Former CIA officer Larry Johnson asks questions here.
- The June 9 memo containing a CIA analyst's notes from a February, 2002 meeting identifying Valerie Wilson as a CIA employee and wife of Joseph Wilson, and as someone who played a role in Wilson being asked to go to Niger, was ordered by state department official Marc Grossman, reportedly in preparation for a meeting with an Administration Official. If that official was not Libby, who would it have been? Cheney?
- Is this being leaked tonight as a result of: Libby being told by Fitz today he is going to be indicted -- or Libby having finalized his plea negotiations with Fitzgerald and putting out advance notice that he will be pleading to one count of making a false statement and one count of obstruction of justice?
And where was Dick Cheney tonight? In Denver at a fundraiser for Republican candidate Rick O'Donnell, who is vying for Bob Beauprez's congressional seat. Beauprez is running for Governor.
Update: Walter Pincus and Dana Milbank trash Wilson in tomorrow's Washington Post. Why? Because the New York Times got the scoop?
