Libby prosecutor may call Cheney to testify in CIA leak case

[dogday]

JURIST] US Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald suggested Wednesday that Vice President Dick Cheney may be a witness in the government's case against former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby , who is being prosecuted in connection to the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity . Fitzgerald believes Cheney's testimony would help the government's case because Cheney can confirm that he wrote notes on a 2003 New York Times op-ed in which former US Ambassador Joseph Wilson criticized the US-led war in Iraq, and that the vice president gave the article to Libby and discussed the fact that Wilson's wife, Plame, was a CIA operative. Cheney's notes read:

Have they done this sort of thing before? Send an ambassador 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?

Further, Fitzgerald stated in Wednesday's court filing that Cheney's state of mind is relevant to whether Libby lied to investigators about how he learned of Plame's identity, and Cheney's notes jotted on Wilson's article will help corroborate what Libby told reporters.

Libby's lawyers argue that the prosecution will not be able to admit Cheney's notes into evidence because Libby testified to the grand jury that he did not see the article with Cheney's notes until months after Plame's identity was revealed. Libby's trial on charges of obstruction of justice and perjury is scheduled to begin in January. AP has more.

http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2006/05/libby-prosecutor-may-call-cheney-to.php

[The_Casual_Observer]

1. I am amazed that those notes were ever officially released.

That is the most secretive bunch of maniacs in the world.

[kahleefornia]

2. what does this mean, exactly?

If he is a witness FOR the prosecution, that means they wouldn't then turn around and try to prosecute him, right?

[dogday]

5. I keep wondering how they got the

newspaper clipping... Not Libby or Cheney.. But someone close

[rock]

3. Oooh. Politicians hate being under oath.

It's not so much that they've got to tell the truth. It's that they've got to answer the question that's asked. (Their favorite way of answering a question is to answer another one instead.)

[dogday]

6. I don't think Cheny or Bush

have been under any legal oath since they took office, have they?

[katty]

4. cheney to libby 'telepathy'...ok scooter go get 'em!

[dogday]

7. Oh I am sure they

are going to cover their own assess.. These guys are so rotten.... The would rather let Miller rot in jail, then come forward... That's their character....

[Catherine Vincent]

8. I guess the GJ didn't meet today on the CIA Leak investigation.

There's always next week.