Cheney unlikely to escape Libby verdict fallout
![Free for now ? Lewis Libby leaves court with his wife, Harriet
Grant, after he was convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice
over the leaking of a CIA agent's name.](/web/20070317111258im_/http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2007/03/07/libby8307_wideweb__470x321,0.jpg)
Free for now
Lewis Libby leaves court with his wife, Harriet
Grant, after he was convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice
over the leaking of a CIA agent's name.
Photo: Reuters
THE conviction of the former senior White House official Lewis Libby on four charges of perjury and obstruction of justice has shaken the White House and left a political cloud hanging over the Vice-President, Dick Cheney.
The President, George Bush, and Mr Cheney issued statements saying they were "saddened" and "disappointed" respectively by the jury's decision. They refused to say more, citing the intention of Libby's legal team to ask for a retrial and, if that fails, to appeal against the verdict.
It is uncertain whether they will stick to this script as the political storm gathers and a Democrat-controlled Congress inevitably holds hearings into the case and Mr Cheney's role in it.
Libby was formerly Mr Cheney's chief-of-staff and a senior national security adviser to both Mr Cheney and Mr Bush before he was forced to resign after being indicted in October 2005.
He was a key player in preparing the case for war in Iraq and his conviction will again raise questions about whether the Bush Administration misused intelligence and why Mr Cheney was so determined to discredit a critic who had alleged the case for war was faulty.
The special prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, who brought the case against Libby after a three year investigation, said no further charges would be laid and that his investigation was over.
But Democrats seized on the outcome to signal congressional hearings at which Mr Cheney and other senior Administration officials could be called to explain their involvement in the events that led to Libby's conviction.
"I welcome the jury's verdict", said the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid. "It's about time someone in the Bush Administration has been held accountable for the campaign to manipulate intelligence and discredit war critics." Senator Reid said that while Libby had been convicted of perjury, his trail "revealed deeper truths about Vice-President Cheney's role in this sordid affair".
The trial has raised serious questions about how the Bush Administration dealt with critics, especially in the middle of 2003, when it was becoming clear that no weapons of mass destruction would be found in Iraq.
Mr Bush and Mr Cheney were desperate to counter claims that they had misused intelligence on the weapons issue.
One of the key remaining questions is whether Libby lied to investigators and a grand jury in order to cover up Mr Cheney's role in the so-called Plame affair.
This will undoubtedly be a big focus of any congressional inquiries undertaken by the Democrats. While Mr Cheney does not face criminal charges - he cannot be charged with perjury given that his evidence to FBI investigators was not given under oath - he is unlikely to be left unscathed by the Libby conviction.
The great irony of this case is that the original inquiry ordered by the Justice Department and conducted by Mr Fitzgerald was into the "outing" of the CIA agent Valerie Plame. Her husband, Joseph Wilson, was a trenchant critic of the Bush Administration, alleging that it had "cooked" the intelligence to invade Iraq.
Mr Fitzgerald laid no charges against anyone on the outing of Ms Plame. However, there was evidence that senior Administration officials, including Mr Bush's senior adviser, Karl Rove, and the former deputy secretary of state, Richard Armitage, had told journalists that Ms Plame worked for the CIA.
Libby was the only official charged after three earlier investigations, which involved interrogations of Mr Bush and Mr Cheney.The charges against Libby involved lying about how he came to know that Ms Plame worked for the CIA.
He had told investigators and the grand jury that he had found out about Ms Plame from journalists, including the New York Times reporter Judith Miller and the NBC Washington bureau chief, Tim Russert.
Both Russert and Miller - who was jailed for almost three months for refusing to reveal it was Libby who told her about Ms Plame - denied they had told Libby about Ms Plame.
Administration officials, including the former White House spokesman, Ari Fleischer, testified that Libby had been told about Ms Plame by Mr Cheney, who had ordered Libby to leak that information to reporters in order to discredit Mr Wilson.
Mr Cheney believed that Ms Plame had persuaded the CIA to send Mr Wilson to Niger to investigate claims - later proved to be false - that the country was selling uranium to Saddam Hussein. Outing Ms Plame as a CIA operative was a way of discrediting Mr Wilson.
Libby will be sentenced on June 5 and is likely to receive a sentence of between 18 months and three years, though there is speculation in Washington that Mr Bush will pardon Libby before leaving office in January 2009.
But Libby and his fate are no longer the key issue for the Administration. It is more the damage the case will have done to Mr Bush and most particularly to Mr Cheney.
FROM WHITE HOUSE TO COURTHOUSE
February 2002 The CIA sends Joseph Wilson, a former ambassador, to Niger to investigate whether Iraq tried to buy uranium for nuclear weapons.
January 2003 President George Bush asserts in his State of the Union address that "Saddam Hussein recently sought uranium from Africa".
May 2003 A newspaper story disputes Mr Bush's assertion, quoting an unnamed former ambassador.
June 2003 The Vice-President, Dick Cheney, advises his chief of staff, Lewis Libby, that Mr Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, worked for the CIA.
July 6, 2003 Mr Wilson publicly criticises the White House, saying the intelligence on Iraq's nuclear weapons programs was "twisted to exaggerate the threat".
July 7, 2003 Libby passes on Ms Plame's identity to the White House press secretary, Ari Fleischer; Mr Bush's senior adviser, Karl Rove; the New York Times journalist Judith Miller and Tim Russert of NBC Television.
July 14, 2003 Ms Plame is identified by a newspaper as a CIA operative.
September 2003 FBI opens investigation into the leaking of Ms Plame's identity.
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