Posted on 04/06/2006 8:51:49 AM PDT by good god
APRIL 6--A former top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney told a federal grand jury that President George Bush authorized him to leak information from a classified intelligence report to a New York Times reporter. Details of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's testimony were included in a court filing made yesterday by Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, who is prosecuting Libby for perjury, obstruction of justice, and making false statements in connection with the probe into the leaking of CIA agent Valerie Plame's identity.
According to Fitzgerald's filing, an excerpt of which you'll find below, Libby, 55, testified in 2003 that he provided reporter Judith Miller with information from a classified National Intelligence Estimate after being told by Cheney that Bush "specifically had authorized" him to "disclose certain information in the NIE." Libby also testified that Cheney also specifically directed him to speak to other reporters about information in the classified NIE (which addresses Iraq's purported weapons of mass destruction programs) as well as a cable authored by Plame's husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson. The leaking of the classified material was apparently done in an effort to counter claims made by Wilson regarding the White House's justification for invading Iraq.
The Fitzgerald filing also notes that Libby told grand jurors that he conferred with David Addington, Cheney's counsel, about the leak directive and that Addington told him "that Presidential authorization to publicly disclose a document amounted to a declassification of the document."
While both Bush and Cheney have been interviewed by Fitzgerald, it is unknown whether they confirmed or disputed Libby's assertion that he was authorized to disclose findings in a classified report. Libby, Cheney's former chief of staff, resigned his White House post last October following his indictment on five felony counts.
(Excerpt) Read more at thesmokinggun.com ...
Welcome (sniff, sniff...)
Hmmmm....
Welcome to FR!!! I think....
Thanks! I hope :)
If this were true, the MSM would have uncovered this long ago.
Me thinks "Good God" troll.
Uh oh, this means that the "Cheney is gay" rumors can't be far behind.
post-zot? bummer. At least I get to see the kitties...
All he did was allow the release of some parts of a classified report on Iraq WMD programs (which is in his power to do IIRC) and the article is trying to use a fake headline to imply something else.
If i am wrong please correct me-Thanks!
NB4ZOT
Impeachment time!! Boy, it's finally going to happen, eh fellow DUmmie? Wait till we tell all the rest...oh, oops.
Wrong site, sorry...
That's the good thing about being the Prez...You can declassify anything!!!
Sounds like a good thing to me. And, the President has the authority to release classified information.
How is this news?
You are exactly correct.. the media is trying to warp the story hoping people don't read the documents attached.. The left and the media relies on the pop culture mentality of following headlines like lemmings instead of researching the story and actually reading the entire article..
Sooooooooo, whaddaya think of all that?
Definitely a newbie Troll minted today! Reads like a confused mass of areo fritto to obfuscate screw ups and a non case as indicated by the Jury shopping that went on.
There was no indication in the filing that either Bush or Cheney authorized Libby to disclose Plame's CIA identity.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.