Waxman wants to know if Cheney involved in leak

Waxman wants to know if Cheney involved in leak
6/4/08
by Jonathan Landay - McClatchy blog

What role did Vice President Dick Cheney play, if any, in the leaking of the identity of Valerie Plame, the undercover CIA officer whose husband, retired Amb. Joe Wilson, angered the White House by questioning its case for invading Iraq?

Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Ca, the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, wants to know. Moreover, the congressman also may be curious if Cheney told the truth to FBI interviewers about any involvement he may have had. The vice president says he has the legal authority to declassify secrets under a March 2003 presidential directive. But he's got to be straight with the FBI.

Waxman wrote today to Attorney General Michael Mukasey asking for the reports of interviews that FBI agents conducted with President Bush and Cheney during the investigation of the Plame leak by former special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald. He also wants the unredacted transcripts _ he was finally given edited versions _ of FBI interviews with former White House political adviser Carl Rove, former Cheney chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and former White House spokesman-turned-tellall author Scott McClellan.

Waxman discloses in his letter that Libby, who was convicted of lying to a grand jury about leaking Plame's identity to reporters, told the FBI that it was "possible" that Cheney "instructed him to disseminate information about Ambassador Wilson's wife to the press. This is a significant revelation and, if true, a serious matter. It cannot be responsibly investigated without access to the Vice President's FBI interview."

Waxman says that other interviews indicate that Cheney "personally may have been the source of the information that Ms. Wilson worked for the CIA. Libby specifically identified the vice president as the source of his information about Ms. Wilson. None of the other White House officials could remember how they learned this information."

Waxman also notes that in his new book, McClellan writes that he was directed by Bush and Cheney to "exonerate" Libby in his daily press briefings, and that Cheney may have been among the senior White House officials who knew the truth but encouraged the former spokesman "to repeat a lie."

"In his FBI interview, Mr. McClellan told the FBI about discussions he had with the president and vice president. These passages, however, were redacted from the copies made available to the committee. Similar passages were also redacted from other interviews," Waxman writes.

"There is no sound reason for you to withhold the interviews with the president and with the vice president from the committee or to redact passages like Mr. McClellan's discussions with the president and the vice president," Waxman tells Mukasey. "Mr. Fitzgerald's investigation is closed and he has indicated that it would be appropriate to share these records with the committee. There has been no assertion of executive privilege."

Waxman notes that the Justice Department turned over - without consultation with the White House - transcripts of FBI interviews with former President Bill Clinton and former Vice President Al Gore when the committee was conducting a campaign finance investigation in 1997 and 1998.

The committee, Waxman says, is trying to answer questions that Fitzgerald's probe did not, including the damage done to U.S. security by the Plame leak, whether the White House properly investigated the case and the need for possible changes in White House security procedures.

"The FBI interview reports that you have shared with the committee raise the possibility that Vice President Cheney may be implicated in the release of Ms. Wilson's identity," Waxman writes.

The ball, as they say, is now in Mukasey's court.