Lawyers for I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby, the former top aide to Vice President Cheney, filed papers in court last week claiming that neither President Bush nor the vice president ever ordered Libby to disclose the name or covert CIA operative Valerie Plame to the press.
Libby's lawyers say that White House documents regarding what he was supposed to say did not mention Plame's name, thereby showing Libby was not out to damage Wilson by blowing her cover. Libby's lawyers say this shows there was no conspiracy to 'get' Plame's husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who had just published an op-ed in the 'New York Times' that was very damaging to the administration. Wilson has stated that the Bush administration twisted intelligence that they knew was false in an attempt to justify their decision to invade Iraq to the public.
Libby was a key player in the administration's attempts to counter Wilson's strong accusations. Apparently, Libby did mention Plame's identity to several reporters after President Bush authorized the 'declassification' of several documents specifically for the attempt to rehabilitate himself politically.
Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald said that Plame's name came up in Libby's conversation with reporters in an attempt to discredit Wilson. By claiming Plame arranged for her husband's trip to Niger to investigate what turned out to be bogus intelligence information that Saddam Hussein was trying to obtain yellowcake uranium from that nation, it would appear to the public that Wilson 'received the assignment [to visit Niger] on account of nepotism.'
Libby's lawyers are still trying to have additional information declassified so the former Cheney aide can use them in his defense. The new filing by Libby's attorneys also says that Plame's identity was only a peripheral matter in Libby's discussions with reporters. Therefore, it is possible Libby was telling the truth when he said he did not recall that aspect of his conversations with reporters.
'He testified to the grand jury unequivocally that he did not understand Ms. Wilson's employment by the CIA to be classified information,' the new filings claim.
While Mr. Fitzgerald's office indicated it was not accusing Libby of being involved in a White House conspiracy to 'get' Wilson and Plame, he did say in light of the testimony given at the grand jury that the White House was making an effort to 'punish' Wilson for revealing information to the public that did not support the administration's claims about the reason they decided to invade Iraq.
