[Mb-civic] Role of Rove, Libby in CIA Leak Case Clearer - Washington Post

[William Swiggard]

Role of Rove, Libby in CIA Leak Case Clearer
Bush and Cheney Aides' Testimony Contradicts Earlier White House Statement

By Jim VandeHei and Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, October 2, 2005; Page A05

As the CIA leak investigation heads toward its expected conclusion this 
month, it has become increasingly clear that two of the most powerful 
men in the Bush administration were more involved in the unmasking of 
operative Valerie Plame than the White House originally indicated.

With New York Times reporter Judith Miller's release from jail Thursday 
and testimony Friday before a federal grand jury, the role of I. Lewis 
"Scooter" Libby, Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, came into 
clearer focus. Libby, a central figure in the probe since its earliest 
days and the vice president's main counselor, discussed Plame with at 
least two reporters but testified that he never mentioned her name or 
her covert status at the CIA, according to lawyers in the case.

His story is similar to that of Karl Rove, President Bush's top 
political adviser. Rove, who was not an initial focus of the 
investigation, testified that he, too, talked with two reporters about 
Plame but never supplied her name or CIA role.

Their testimony seems to contradict what the White House was saying a 
few months after Plame's CIA job became public.

In October 2003, White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters 
that he personally asked Libby and Rove whether they were involved, "so 
I could come back to you and say they were not involved." Asked if that 
was a categorical denial of their involvement, he said, "That is correct."

What remains a central mystery in the case is whether special prosecutor 
Patrick J. Fitzgerald has accumulated evidence during his two-year 
investigation that any crime was committed. His investigation has White 
House aides and congressional Republicans on edge as they await 
Fitzgerald's announcement of an indictment or the conclusion of the 
probe with no charges. The grand jury is scheduled to expire Oct. 28, 
and lawyers in the case expect Fitzgerald to signal his intentions as 
early as this week.

Fitzgerald is investigating whether anyone illegally disclosed Plame's 
name or undercover CIA job in retaliation against her husband, Joseph C. 
Wilson IV. In the summer of 2003, Wilson, a former diplomat, accused the 
White House of using "twisted" intelligence to justify the invasion of Iraq.

He claimed firsthand evidence: At the behest of the CIA, he had flown to 
Niger in February 2002 to investigate the administration's assertion 
that Iraq was trying to purchase uranium in the African nation for use 
in its nuclear weapons program. Wilson returned unconvinced the 
assertion was true. However, Bush himself made the charge in his 2003 
State of the Union address, prompting Wilson to spread word throughout 
the government and eventually make public his rebuttal.

Many lawyers in the case have been skeptical that Fitzgerald has the 
evidence to prove a violation of the Intelligence Identities Protection 
Act, which is the complicated crime he first set out to investigate, and 
which requires showing that government officials knew an operative had 
covert status and intentionally leaked the operative's identity.

But a new theory about Fitzgerald's aim has emerged in recent weeks from 
two lawyers who have had extensive conversations with the prosecutor 
while representing witnesses in the case. They surmise that Fitzgerald 
is considering whether he can bring charges of a criminal conspiracy 
perpetrated by a group of senior Bush administration officials. Under 
this legal tactic, Fitzgerald would attempt to establish that at least 
two or more officials agreed to take affirmative steps to discredit and 
retaliate against Wilson and leak sensitive government information about 
his wife. To prove a criminal conspiracy, the actions need not have been 
criminal, but conspirators must have had a criminal purpose.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/01/AR2005100101317.html?nav=hcmodule
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