WASHINGTON, June 19, 2009
Judge Probing Cheney's CIA Leak Role
Federal Judge Asks To See FBI's Notes From Interview With Ex-VP From Plame Investigation
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Former Vice President Dick Cheney speaks at the Gerald R. Ford Foundation Journalism Awards luncheon at the National Press Club in Washington, June 1, 2009. (AP)
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Interactive The Leak People and events surrounding the leak of a CIA officer's name.
U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan's decision to review the documents followed arguments by Obama administration lawyers that sounded much like the reasons the Bush administration provided for keeping Cheney's interview from the public.
Justice Department lawyers told the judge that future presidents and vice presidents may not cooperate with criminal investigations if they know what they say could become available to their political opponents and late-night comics who would ridicule them.
"If we become a fact-finder for political enemies, they aren't going to cooperate," Justice Department attorney Jeffrey Smith said during a 90-minute hearing. "I don't want a future vice president to say, `I'm not going to cooperate with you because I don't want to be fodder for 'The Daily Show."'
Sullivan said the Justice Department must give him more precise reasons for keeping the information confidential than they had in previous court filings.
Cheney agreed to talk to FBI agents in June 2004 as they were investigating the leak of former CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity to reporters the year before. Her name was revealed after her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, criticized the Bush administration's prewar intelligence on Iraq.
The leak touched off a lengthy inquiry that led to Cheney's former top aide, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, being convicted on charges of obstruction of justice and lying to investigators. During his trial, jurors found that Libby lied to the FBI and a grand jury about his conversations with reporters. Bush commuted Libby's sentence, and he never served prison time.
Libby was the only person charged in the case. No one was charged with leaking Wilson's name.
In July 2008, the liberal watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the Justice Department seeking records related to Cheney's interview in the investigation. The Justice Department declined to turn over the records, and CREW filed a lawsuit in August.
The Justice Department reported in court filings that it found three documents totaling 67 pages that related to the watchdog group's FOIA request, but said the documents were exempt since they were part of a law enforcement matter and their release could interfere with future cases. They also said the interview contained classified material and that presidential communications were shielded to allow candor with the president and his advisers.
CREW argued that the public has a right to know the role that Cheney played in the leak and why he was not prosecuted.
Libby told the FBI in 2003 that it was possible that Cheney ordered him to reveal Plame's identity to reporters. The prosecutor in that case, Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, said in his closing remarks at Libby's trial that there was a "cloud" over Cheney's role in the case.
Fitzgerald told members of Congress who also sought the information that Cheney set no conditions about the use of his interview with investigators.
A Cheney spokeswoman declined to comment on the case.
© MMIX The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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See all 35 CommentsWe have one liberal, its called voting like how we are all going to vote Obama out in the 2010 elections!
Uh Huh! LOL First you have to HAVE a party to run against him.... second he's not up for election until 2012. Now at the rate the Republican Party is fading into history, what is it 25% of the total public is Republican now, there won't be enough outside the South to even be a national Party. RIGHT now, if you look at the 25% figure the VAST Majority of it is in the Stupid South. In most other states they are in the Teens, maybe lower. Have you thought about maybe improving your Education... you could then at least post stuff that makes sense.
Cheney should hold his head high. History will show Bush and Cheney to be two of the Greatest Leaders of The United States. I would not trade one Cheney for ten Obama's. History will show Obama to be a total failure.
I'm interested to know what you base that on? They were in charge when MORE American's died in an Attack on this nation than any in our history. They were WARNED about the Attack BEFORE it happened. They then failed to bring to justice the ones who took credit for that attack instead attacking the Wrong nation, a nation that had NOTHING what so ever to do with the attack on us. I don't know about YOUR neck of the woods man but from where I come, that's called getting your BUTT KICKED! Ain't NOTHING Great about Getting your Butt Kicked.
Or, accusing the Surgeon General of wanting people to die, just to prove himself right.
Whatever, it's completely retarded and dangerous. Since, everybody knows, that should worse come to worse, we can always duck & cover, see?
But there's one thing you can be sure of, appeasement never did stop anyone from causing mischief, it only buys them time to make it much worse.
LAME!!
Outing Ms. Plame could have cost he her life for Gawd's sake. Doing it for no better reason than political revenge only aggrivates the offense.
I think there should be full disclosure of what Mr. Cheney told the agent and if it is as bad as I suspect it is, if he gets no worse than a Letterman roasting, then he should consider himself a very lucky man.
Outting a CIA agent is Treason. You either want justice for Treason or not.
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It's all about the spice...er...I mean oil!
Dick Cheney is one of the biggest scum bags on the planet, but he will never do any jail time.
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