Progressive Talking Points 2/10/06

Scooter Libby – Still in Trouble

Fresh evidence emerged yesterday that the CIA leak scandal extends to the highest levels of the White House. Court documents filed by special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald reveal that I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, "told a grand jury that he was authorized by his 'superiors' to disclose classified information to reporters." The National Journal reports that those superiors were "Vice President Cheney and other senior Bush administration officials." These revelations spell trouble not just for Libby, but Dick Cheney and the Bush administration.

• Libby’s revelations do not excuse him from legal jeopardy. The excuse “my boss told me to do it” does not mean that Libby is immune from criminal charges. If anything, this revelation weakens his case. When Libby was indicted, he claimed that he "was only passing along what he understood to be unverified gossip that he had heard from other journalists.” The new evidence shows his claim to be false – Libby would be unlikely to forget that Cheney was his original source.
  
  
• These new revelations establish a motive for Libby. The new information released helps to explain why Libby would risk perjury before the grand jury. To avoid political embarrassment, he would want to hide the fact that he was "broadly authorized by Cheney and others to rebut former Ambassador Wilson's charges."
  
  
• New revelations prompt more questions about the administration’s role in the CIA leak case. With the new revelations come more questions about who else in the administration was actually involved in the outing of a CIA agent. If Scooter Libby was authorized by his superiors – including the Vice President – to leak classified information, who else was involved?