Counsel Says He May Use Cheney in Libby Leak Trial

The New York Times

By DAVID JOHNSTON
Published: May 25, 2006

WASHINGTON, May 24 — A court filing on Wednesday by the special counsel in the C.I.A. leak case suggested that Vice President Dick Cheney would testify as a government witness in the trial of his former chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby Jr.

The legal brief did not say with certainty that Mr. Cheney would be called as a witness. But the latest filing, like earlier court papers, underscored the prosecutor's contention that the vice president's role was critical to understanding Mr. Libby's wrongdoing. But the new filing was the first to indicate that Mr. Cheney himself might be called as a government witness.

On the issue of whether Mr. Cheney will testify, the brief said, "Contrary to defendant's assertion, the government has not represented that it does not intend to call the vice president as a witness at trial."

The prosecution brief, signed by Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the special counsel, added, "To the best of government's counsel's recollection, the government has not commented on whether it intends to call the vice president as a witness."

Mr. Libby testified to the grand jury in the case that Mr. Cheney had been "upset" by the OpEd article in The New York Times on July 6, 2003, written by Joseph C. Wilson IV, a former ambassador, according to the papers, filed in Federal District Court in the District of Columbia.
The article criticized the Bush administration Iraq policy, voicing serious doubts about assertions in the months before the war that Iraq had sought uranium fuel from Africa as part of a suspected program to develop unconventional weapons. Mr. Cheney, according to Mr. Libby's grand jury testimony, believed that the article falsely attacked his credibility because it said his office instigated a trip in 2002 that Mr. Wilson took to Niger to explore reports of possible nuclear purchases.

It was on a copy of the article that Mr. Cheney made handwritten entries [cite listed below showing the handwritten "entries"] asking whether it was Mr. Wilson's wife who sent him on the trip. Mr. Wilson is married to Valerie Plame Wilson, the C.I.A. office, whose name was disclosed in a syndicated column on July 14, 2003. The column by Robert D. Novak led to the inquiry that ended with the perjury and obstruction of justice indictment against Mr. Libby last October. Mr. Libby has pleaded not guilty. The trial is to begin early next year.

The government wants to use Mr. Cheney's notes as evidence, saying they show the state of mind in Mr. Cheney's office and the importance that aides like Mr. Libby attached to rebutting the article.

The prosecution has said that after Mr. Cheney expressed concern, Mr. Libby informed reporters that Mr. Cheney's office did not send Mr. Wilson and that he might have traveled on what was little more than a junket arranged by Ms. Wilson.

Later, the prosecution has said, Mr. Libby misled investigators about his actions, saying the reporters had told him about Ms. Wilson.

And from the Washington Post ...

Libby Denies Seeing Cheney's Notes on Newspaper Column

By R. Jeffrey Smith

Washington Post Staff Writer

Sunday, May 21, 2006; Page A04
Reprinted From Yesterday's Late Edition

Lawyers for I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the indicted former chief of staff to Vice President Cheney, said in a court filing late Friday that Libby did not see the notes Cheney inscribed on a key newspaper column criticizing the administration's rationale for invading Iraq until he was shown the annotations in the course of an FBI investigation.

Understanding the Plame Affair

Key Players in the CIA Leak Case Analysis and short biographies of the main individuals involved in the investigation of the leak of Valerie Plame's identity to the press.
Explaining the Charges
Q&A: The Leak Case Facts
Timeline: Libby's Role
Full Text of Indictment: US v. Libby
Special Counsel's Press Release Detailing Libby Indictment
Transcript: Fitzgerald's 10/28 Press Conf.
Pres. Bush's Remarks
Photos

Career Highlights of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby

I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, is at the center of an investigation into the leaking of CIA agent Valerie Plame's identity.

Plame Investigation Leaks Links to court rulings, briefs, and government documents pertaining to the leak investigation (and the First Amendment battle).

The Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982

The lawyers raised the issue to cast doubt on a claim by special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald in a court filing a week ago that the annotations "serve both to explain the context of and provide a motive for" Libby's statements and actions that brought about his indictment.

The annotations by Cheney on the opinion column, written by former U.S. ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, raised the possibility that a report by Wilson questioning Iraqi efforts to buy material in Niger for a nuclear weapon was instigated by Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, whose position at the CIA was classified.

After the Wilson column appeared, several journalists published Plame's name and wrote that it was leaked by administration officials, which led to Fitzgerald's investigation and the charges against Libby of lying to investigators about conversations with journalists.

Fitzgerald has alleged that Cheney's annotations explain why Libby and his colleagues in the vice president's office were "focused" on rebutting Wilson's claims, and that they establish "some of the facts" Cheney viewed as important, including the possibility that Wilson's trip was a junket arranged by Plame.

But Libby's lawyers, in a filing that amplifies Libby's previous requests for access to government documents, quoted from previously sealed grand jury testimony in which Libby said he had not seen the annotations until the FBI gave him a copy. They also state that Fitzgerald may have difficulty authenticating the annotations in court because he has already said he does not intend to call Cheney as a witness at Libby's trial.

VIDEOTIPS@RAWSTORY.COM

MSNBC says Cheney could be called in CIA leak case. Watch the video.

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/New_filing_may_spell_trouble_for_0515.html

http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2006/05/15/irve-libby-trial-update-cheneys-has-really-neat-handwriting/

AND A PICTURE OF THE ACTUAL WRITING IS BELOW:

http://talkleft.com/new_archives/014832.html

Saturday :: May 13, 2006
Fitz Includes Cheney's Handwritten Notes on Wilson's Op-Ed in Court Filing

Is Dick Cheney the next "Official A"?
Late Friday, Patrick Fitzgerald filed a new pleading in the Scooter Libby case. Empty Wheel at Next Hurrah posts the pleading and analyzes the contents, including this exhibit, a copy of Joseph Wilson's July 6, 2003 New York Times op-ed with Cheney's handwritten notations.
In the notations, Cheney writes,
Have they done this sort of thing before? Send an Amb to answer a question? Do we ordinarily send people out pro bono to work for us? Or did his wife send him on a junket?
Newsweek's Michael Isikoff's take is here.
It is extremely rare, if not unprecedented, for Cheney's own notes to be made public. The notes--apparently obtained as a result of a grand jury subpoena--would appear to make Cheney an even more central witness than had been previously thought in the criminal probe.
....Fitzgerald first alleged that Cheney had questioned whether Wilson's trip was a "junket" in a court filing last month. In that filing, Fitzgerald also asserted that the vice president, acting with the approval of President Bush, had authorized Libby to disclose portions of the classified National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq to rebut some of Wilson's claims.
....Fitzgerald in his court filing indicated he plans to introduce a copy of Cheney's annotated version of the Wilson column to show the vice president's interest in the circumstances surrounding Wilson's trip was an important matter to Libby that week and explains many of his actions.