5 myths about the Libby case
The public still has startling misconceptions about the investigation
CAROL LEONNIG
Washington Post
Judge Reggie Walton, who last week sentenced Lewis "Scooter" Libby to 30 months in prison for lying to federal investigators about his role in the leak of a CIA officer's identity, got 373 pages of letters about the high-profile convict whose fate he had to decide.
Many argued for leniency on behalf of Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff. Others were outraged about the example Libby set; one letter from "An Angry Citizen" demanded the longest prison term possible.
While covering this case for The Washington Post from the beginning of Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation in December 2003, I've received a steady stream of mail about the case, most of it fuming -- some because they think a tireless patriot is being persecuted by a runaway prosecutor, others because they think a ruthless traitor is getting off easy for jeopardizing national security.
Neither caricature is fair -- let alone accurate. But even now, four years after Valerie Plame's identity hit the papers, the public still has some startling misconceptions about this fascinating, thorny case.
1. Valerie Plame wasn't a covert operative.
Wrong. She was.
Granted, this wasn't so clear at the start of Fitzgerald's grand jury investigation, so Libby's allies argued that the beans he spilled weren't that important to begin with. In fact, many of the officials who actually knew about her classified CIA status kept mum, which let Libby's pals jump to assert that she wasn't an undercover operative at the time of the leak.
But a CIA "unclassified summary" of Plame's career, released in court filings before Libby's June 5 sentencing, puts this one to rest: The CIA considered her covert at the time her identity was leaked to the media.
When Libby was convicted, some conservative pundits complained that Fitzgerald had presented no compelling evidence at trial that Plame was covert. But that wasn't for lack of evidence; it was because Libby's lawyers convinced the court to bar any mention of her status during the trial, arguing that evidence suggesting that her job was classified would have been "unfairly prejudicial" to their client.
The CIA says she was covert. Which other spook bureaucracy do you need to ask?
2. Karl Rove would have been indicted in the Plame case if it hadn't been for all the destroyed evidence.
You'll find this conspiracy theory all over left-wing blogs. The main cause of the hyperventilating is a series of missing White House e-mails, supposedly containing marching orders from President Bush's top political adviser in which Rove told his troops to out Plame and punish her husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson, for having poured cold water over reports that Saddam Hussein had sought uranium in Africa.
Those e-mails may well contain interesting stuff, but for now, it's rank speculation to suggest they contained information about the Plame case or would have pushed Fitzgerald to charge Rove with perjury.
Fitzgerald told the court just that. He was exercising standard prosecutorial discretion when he decided not to charge Rove, according to sources close to the probe: He simply didn't think he had a strong enough case to prove that Rove had intentionally lied to investigators (though some FBI agents disagreed).
3. Libby didn't leak Plame's identity.
Oh brother, am I tired of this one. Libby wasn't charged with the crime of knowingly leaking classified information about Plame; he was charged with lying to investigators. But the overwhelming weight of the evidence at the trial -- including reporters' notes of their interviews with Libby -- showed that Libby had indeed leaked classified information about Plame's identity, even though that wasn't what put him in the dock. The jury agreed that Libby lied when he said that he'd only been telling reporters what other reporters had already told him about Plame's role at the CIA.
What is unclear is whether Libby knew she was a covert CIA agent at the time he discussed her with reporters -- a key point in determining whether this was an illegal leak.
4. Bad press doesn't get under Vice President Cheney's skin.
The most powerful vice president in U.S. history is usually described as a tough customer who shrugs off media criticism. But if he had been that immune to it he would never have told his top aide to talk about Joe Wilson, and none of this would ever have happened.
5. The White House would fire any administration official who leaked classified information about Plame.
When the leak probe began in 2003, the president said he hated leaks and would hold leakers of classified information accountable. But he's still never sacked anyone over the case.
Libby resigned the day he was indicted in October 2005. Two other officials who gave reporters information about Plame, former deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage and former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, left government before Fitzgerald's probe concluded. And Rove, who first told Time magazine reporter Matt Cooper about Plame's CIA identity, remains in the White House as deputy chief of staff.
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Carol Leonnig, formerly a reporter at the Observer, covers federal courts for The Washington Post. Write her at
[email protected].
