New filing may spell trouble for Vice President's former chief of staff

RAW STORY
Published: Monday May 15, 2006

The latest report from MSNBC's David Shuster on the CIA leak investigation indicates more trouble for I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney who was indicted last year for obstructing justice.

"The latest prosecution pleading says that on the day columnist Robert Novak's column first disclosed Valerie Wilson's identity, a quote "CIA official discussed in the defendant's presence the dangers posed by disclosure of the CIA affiliation of one of its employees as had occurred in the Novak column," Shuster reports. "This evidence directly contradicts the defense position that the defendant had no motive to lie. Instead, the evidence about the conversation concerning the Novak column provides a strong motive for the defendant to provide false information and testimony about his disclosures to reporters."

Full transcript from MSNBC's Hardball report on the latest in the CIA leak investigation.

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CHRIS MATTHEWS, MSNBC HOST: New documents filed by Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald in the CIA leak investigation literally had Vice President's Cheney's handwriting all over it. The papers reveal that the Vice President wrote questions on a copy of Joe Wilson's OpEd column in the New York Times indicating the Vice President was personally directing the focus on the war critic and his wife Valerie Wilson who got outed subsequently as a CIA officer. Plus, the President's polls continue to collapse pushing First Lady Laura Bush out to defend his policies on Mother's Day. And General Michael Hayden, the President's nominee to head the embattled CIA is under new heat on the NSA wiretapping just days before his Senate hearings. And tonight, in a primetime address to the country, the President is forced to promise National Guard troops to protect our borders...And last, but not least... the President's address is bumping Oprah in primetime! More on all this later.. but first HARDBALL'S David Shuster has the latest developments in the CIA leak case.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID SHUSTER, HARDBALL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over):

Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is now arguing in court documents that Vice President Cheney personally directed his office's focus on Valerie Wilson's role at the CIA. And to prove it at Scooter Libby's perjury trial, Fitzgerald says he will introduce as evidence this copy of a column by Wilson's husband, administration critic Joe Wilson, that has Cheney's handwritten notes at the top.

In the column titled, what I didn't find in Africa, Wilson wrote about being sent to the continent in 2002 to investigate allegations Iraq was seeking uranium from Niger. Wilson wrote Vice President Cheney had asked the CIA about the allegations... prompting the CIA, in turn, to send him.

Wilson wrote he found no evidence to support the uranium claim and told the CIA months before the claim ended up in the President's state of the Union speech.

The Vice President read Wilson's take and here's what he wrote in the margin, apparently referring to the CIA:

"Have they done this sort of thing before? Send an ambassador to answer a question?" The next notation says, "do we ordinarily send people out pro bono to work for us? Or did his wife send him on a junket?"

Fitzgerald says Cheney's notes on Wilson's column are important for what he calls some "principal reasons."

Fitzgerald write, "The article, and the fact it contained certain criticisms of the administration, including criticisms regarding issues dealt with by the Office of the Vice President, serve both to explain the context of, and provide a motive for, many of the defendant's statements and actions at issue in this case."

Prosecutors have alleged that over the five days that followed the column, Libby tried to undercut Wilson by telling a string of people Wilson's wife worked at the CIA and the Wilson findings, therefore, were tainted.

July 7, press secretary Ari Fleischer.

July 8, New York Times reporter Judy Miller.

On July 10 or 11, Karl Rove and Libby discussed the Wilsons and Rove said a column was coming from Robert Novak.

On July 12, Libby discussed the Wilsons with Time's Matt Cooper and again with the New York Time's Judy Miller.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT FREDERICKSEN, former federal prosecutor: "It provides the motive, it rebuts the defense, it shows there seems to be much more of a comprehensive plan with the intention to focus on Plame, not just Wilson, and to go out and speak to reporters about it."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHUSTER: The Fitzgerald documents do not suggest Vice President Cheney did anything wrong legally. But Politically, there could be problems. Because the first time the Vice President spoke publicly about any of this, in September 2003 on Meet the Press,

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VICE PRESIDENT CHENEY: "I don't know Joe Wilson. I've never met Joe Wilson."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHUSTER: The Vice President left the impression he knew nothing about Wilson or his trip to Niger.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VICE PRESIDENT CHENEY: "And Joe Wilson-I don't know who sent Joe Wilson."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHUSTER: But Cheney's own handwriting, from months earlier, shows the Vice President was focused on Wilson. As for Scooter Libby, he has argued in his perjury case that he had no reason to lie about conversations with reporters because the disclosure about Plame was innocent and caused no damage.

But the latest prosecution pleading says that on the day columnist Robert Novak's column first disclosed Valerie Wilson's identity, a quote "CIA official discussed in the defendant's presence the dangers posed by disclosure of the CIA affiliation of one of its employees as had occurred in the Novak column. This evidence directly contradicts the defense position that the defendant had no motive to lie. Instead, the evidence about the conversation concerning the Novak column provides a strong motive for the defendant to provide false information and testimony about his disclosures to reporters.

Presidential advisor Karl Rove remains under investigation 19 days after his last grand jury testimony in the case. Rove's legal team says the focus is on Rove's claim of a bad memory regarding a conversation with Time's Matt Cooper. Legal experts say that while Vice President Cheney's note about the Wilson's seem to damage Libby, the evidence could damage Rove as well.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT FREDERICKSEN, former federal prosecutor: "It shows Fitzgerald believes that this was a planned event, from the highest sources, starting with the Vice President. And if that's the case, I think he is unlikely to believe this was a matter that slipped from the memory of Mr. Rove, just like he doesn't believe that was the case for Mr. Libby."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SHUSTER ON-CAMERA: At a speech today, Karl Rove was asked about the CIA leak case and refused to comment. A spokesman for Rove says the Presidential advisor expects to find out any time if he will face charges in the investigation, an investigation that keeps referring to Vice President Cheney. I'm David Shuster, for Hardball, in Washington.