Not Guilty Plea In Leak Case

Lewis Libby Denies Lying To Federal Investigators Probing Leak

(CBS/AP) 
Libby was charged Friday with lying to investigators about leaking the identity of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame, wife of Bush administration critic Joseph Wilson. Plame's name was exposed by conservative columnist Robert Novak after Wilson accused the Bush administration of twisting intelligence in the run-up to the war to exaggerate the Iraqi threat.

The indictment says Libby got information about Plame's identity in June 2003 from Cheney, the State Department and the CIA, then spread it to New York Times reporter Judith Miller and Time magazine reporter Matt Cooper. Libby told FBI agents and a federal grand jury that his information had come from NBC reporter Tim Russert.

Russert says he and Libby never discussed Wilson or his wife.

Miller, who never wrote a story, said Libby told her about the CIA connection of Wilson's wife. Cooper said Libby was one of his sources for a story identifying the CIA connection of Wilson's wife.

Senate Democrats have seized on the Libby indictment to put the Bush administration on the defensive, focusing attention on the possible manipulation of prewar intelligence on Iraq and the failure by Senate Republicans on the intelligence committee to promptly finish an investigation of the issue.

Columbia University-trained Libby has foreign policy expertise as a former aide in the Defense and State departments. He has been extremely loyal to Cheney and, in return, had the vice president's unwavering trust.

Libby was known as "Cheney's Cheney." Just as President Bush has Cheney as his behind-the-scenes adviser and problem-solver, Cheney had Libby as his trusted right-hand man. "Scooter is to Cheney as Cheney is to Bush," former Cheney aide Mary Matalin said.

Libby's nickname, a bit incongruous for such a powerful Washington figure, was given to Libby by his father when as a baby he would "scoot" from place to place. It stuck, and Libby joked that it kept people from taking him too seriously in Washington.

Some on Cheney's staff did not like Libby's management skills. He didn't spend much time grooming those who worked for him and instead focused his attention on serving the president and vice president in a demanding job that can exact a high personal toll.

In his dual role as Cheney's chief of staff and adviser to Bush, Libby has had extraordinary influence and access in all aspects of White House policy-making, particularly national security. He was an expert in homeland security and weapons of mass destruction even before Sept. 11, 2001, and used that knowledge to shape administration policy after the terrorist attacks.

Libby and the vice president got to know each other at the Pentagon when Cheney was defense secretary under the first President George Bush. By 2000, Libby was working as a top adviser to Cheney in the presidential campaign and then followed him to the White House.

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EDITOR'S NOTE: This morning (November 3) in the 7:00 AM newsblock of The Early Show, I said in a live report that Lewis Libby was expected to plead “guilty” when he appeared today in Federal Court. In fact, we had been told that Mr. Libby was expected to plead "not guilty," which he did later in the day. I very much regret the slip of the tongue on live television and in no way meant to pre-judge Mr. Libby.

Bill Plante
Senior White House Correspondent
CBS News