Cheney didn’t encourage leak, Libby testified

WASHINGTON – Lewis “Scooter” Libby told a grand jury in 2004 that Vice President Dick Cheney did not encourage him to provide information about an undercover CIA officer to the media, but also said he did not believe the information was secret and had to be safeguarded, according to audiotapes of Libby’s testimony played in court Monday.

Testifying to the grand jury in the probe that eventually led to criminal charges against him, Libby, then Cheney’s chief of staff, said he remembered Cheney telling him in June 2003 that the wife of a prominent war critic worked at the CIA. Libby said it was the first time he had heard that, but that Cheney said it in “sort of an offhand manner, as a curiosity.”

Libby also testified that he “could not recall” details of events and conversations he had that summer with Cheney and other administration officials regarding the war critic, former ambassador Joseph Wilson. Wilson that summer accused the administration of twisting intelligence he had gathered about Iraq’s efforts to develop a nuclear weapons program as the White House launched the invasion of Iraq and sold it to the public.

The eight hours of audiotapes, most of which are to be played today, are intended to back up the government’s claims that Libby lied to investigators about his role in disclosing the identity of undercover CIA officer Valerie Plame, Wilson’s wife. Prosecutors have alleged Plame’s name was leaked as part of a campaign to discredit Wilson by spreading the idea that his CIA-sponsored trip was the result of nepotism.

Libby is not charged with the leak but with five felony counts of perjury, making false statements and obstruction of justice. He has pleaded not guilty, contending he inaccurately remembered events when he said he learned of Plame from NBC News’ Washington Bureau Chief Tim Russert and forgot he first heard of her from Cheney.

U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton agreed Monday that the audiotapes should be released to the media after they are played for the jury, despite strenuous arguments by Libby’s defense attorneys that they not be released during trial. Defense lawyer William Jeffress said the news generated by the tapes – and the public buzz about them – could be so widespread that there was a risk jurors could accidentally encounter it.