Posted on 11/16/2005 11:07:47 AM PST by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON - Vice President Cheney's former top aide, indicted last month on perjury and obstruction charges, reviewed documents Wednesday at a federal courthouse.
Accompanied by his legal team, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby walked into the courthouse without the crutches that he'd been using during a court appearance two weeks ago when he pleaded not guilty to charges stemming from the CIA leak investigation.
Libby's visit to the courthouse came hours after The Washington Post reported that at least one senior Bush administration official — who was not identified — told editor Bob Woodward about CIA operative Valerie Plame about a month before her identity was publicly exposed.
The newspaper reported that Woodward told Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, who is investigating the leak of Plame's identity, that the official talked to him about Plame in mid-June 2003. Woodward and editors at the Post refused to identify the official to reporters other than to say it was not Libby.
Mark Corallo, a spokesman for Karl Rove's legal team, said Rove was not the official who talked to Woodward. Rove is a top deputy to President Bush and was referred to, but not by name, in Libby's indictment, as having discussed Plame's identity with reporters.
Libby was indicted last month on one charge of obstruction of justice and two counts each of false statement and perjury in connection with Fitzgerald's investigation.
Plame's husband, former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson, had criticized U.S. intelligence efforts before the Iraq war. On June 23, Libby told New York Times reporter Judith Miller that Wilson's wife might work at the CIA. Robert Novak, in a column published July 14, identified Plame, as a CIA operative.
Woodward's testimony in a two-hour deposition Monday would mean that another White House official told a reporter about Plame before Libby revealed her identity to Miller. A spokesman for White House adviser Karl Rove told the Post that Rove did not discuss Plame with Woodward.
William Jeffress Jr., one of Libby's lawyers, told the Post that Woodward's testimony raises questions about his client's indictment. "Will Mr. Fitzgerald now say he was wrong to say on TV that Scooter Libby was the first official to give this information to a reporter?" Jeffress said.
Woodward, famous for his investigation with Carl Bernstein of the Watergate scandal during the Nixon administration, is now assistant managing editor of the Post. In October, he was dismissive of the outing of Plame, telling CNN's Larry King that the damage from her exposure was "quite minimal."
Meantime, The Associated Press on Wednesday joined other news organizations in asking U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton to deny a court motion by Fitzgerald for a blanket protective order keeping all pretrial evidence in Libby's case out of public view.
The special prosecutor is seeking a court order that would prohibit Libby and his legal team from publicly disclosing "all materials produced by the government."
It wasn't Rove.
Woodward is a big liberal - maybe since they did not get Bush's chief as the left had hoped, woodward is manufacturing data to get Rove anyway they can.
Fitzy Boy sure is secretive.
One has to wonder why.
It was Mary Mapes
ROFLOL!!! I cannot stand Armitage -- that would be AWESOME!
Sounds like a desperate attempt to get attention from the irrelevant Woodward.
Woodward has unprecedented access to this White House; just read his books.
And if he says the "results" of the leak were minimal -- which he did say AFTER Fitzgerald's indictment -- you can take it to the bank that she wasn't undercover.
Better the incriminations from MSM; the accusations; guilt implied. . .the pretense of substantiative 'evidence'. . .than the truth be 'outed' here.
That said, what with Woodward's knowledge; Libby case should be thrown out. At the least, but why dream. . .Woodward should be indicted for his 'role' in watching a miscarriage of Justice occur. . .and for enjoying it as well.
Every subscriber to WaPo should just send a message to these yellow journalism practitioners. . .CANCEL.
No, I don't think so. He already said he didn't think the material he recieved from the source was classified. And Fitzgerald pretty much already concluded the same.
His book sales probably aren't too good.
I don't think it was Powell -- he went to the UN with all the intelligence data.
Still cannot believe all this is going on about outing someone from the CIA whose husband had outed her before and who outed herself to her lover now husband which was against CIA rules. Some of these puzzle pieces are not fitting!
It was Lucy Ramirez, at a Kinkos in Austin.
Actually, I'm glad he sat on the sidelines. He has now screwed up the timeline which will screw up Fitzgerald's case.
foul bowel
Clearly Woodward's source was former CIA Director William J. Casey. Not content with having merely fabricated a prior deathbed interview with Casey, Woodward one-upped his own performance by conducting a post-death interview with Casey during which Casey revealed Plame's CIA employment status.
Fitz actually turned out to be another Walsh.
You must mean Archie BaldCox.
Bob Woodward is actually a Republican.
Mapes, and she has the documents to prove it!
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