Libby Leaks Approved By White House Superiors?
This headline from the Associated Press sure got my blood pumping…
Wow, right? Sounds like the Democrats might finally have that tie between Plame and Cheney or Bush they’ve been dreaming about for the last two years. Except, when we read the article we learn that the reality of what Libby “leaked” isn’t all that exciting.
WASHINGTON (AP) – A former top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney told a federal grand jury that his superiors authorized him to give secret information to reporters as part of the Bush administration’s defense of intelligence used to justify invading Iraq, according to court papers.
Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald said in documents filed last month that he plans to introduce evidence that I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Cheney’s former chief of staff, disclosed to reporters the contents of a classified National Intelligence Estimate in the summer of 2003.
The NIE is a report prepared by the head of the nation’s intelligence operations for high-level government officials, up to and including the president. Portions of NIEs are sometimes declassified and made public. It is unclear whether that happened in this instance.
In a Jan. 23 letter to Libby’s lawyers, Fitzgerald said Libby also testified before the grand jury that he caused at least one other government official to discuss an intelligence estimate with reporters in July 2003.
“We also note that it is our understanding that Mr. Libby testified that he was authorized to disclose information about the NIE to the press by his superiors,” Fitzgerald wrote.
The National Intelligence Estimate is a document prepared by America’s intelligence community for the nation’s political leaders, the President chief among them. In the past certain aspects of the National Intelligence Estimate have been made public for various reasons, and it seems to me that if the President decides that certain aspects of any given NIE should be made public then there is nothing illegal about that.
And if there were something illegal about it I would expect that Mr. Fitzgerald would be prosecuting Mr. Libby for leaking the information instead of just lying under oath.
