by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright March 7, 2007
All Rights Reserved.

inding Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby guilty of perjury and obstruction of justice in the CIA leak investigation puts Cheney in the hot seat. Jurors didn't buy lead defense counsel Ted Wells' theory that Libby suffered from faulty memory, failing to recall Cheney told him June 2003 that White House critic Joseph C. Wilson IV's wife Valerie Plame worked for the CIA. Libby told the FBI and grand jury he learned July 10, 2003 Plame's identity from NBC chief Washington correspondent and “Meet the Press” host Tim Russert. Russert testified he learned of Plame's identity July 14, 2003 after reading syndicated columnist Robert Novak's piece in the Chicago Sun Times. Unfortunately for Libby, he had also told nine other witnesses about Plame's identity before he claimed Russert enlightened him on July 10, 2003.

      U.S. District Court Judge Reggie B. Walton refused to allow Wells & Co. to call memory experts to corroborate faulty memory claims unless Libby testified, leaving the best grounds for appeal. Wells opted to keep Libby off the stand and away from special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald's cross-examination. Judging by Libby's answers to the FBI and grand jury, Wells did the right thing: Better to be silent and be thought dumb, than to speak and remove all doubt. Wells kept Cheney off the stand, believing it would make matters worse. Wells told the jury that Libby was thrown under the buss by the White House to protect a bigger fish, President George W. Bush's chief strategist and deputy chief of staff Karl Rove. No one has asked Cheney why he was so obsessed with Wilson's July 6, 2003 op-ed in the New York Times accusing the White House of twisting prewar intelligence.

      Libby's trial gave a sordid look behind the carefully polished façade of the vice president. When Cheney's former communication director Catherine Martin testified about how Cheney dictated talking points about the Plame scandal, it showed how the VP spent his time. Cheney couldn't stomach growing concerns about how his office bypassed the CIA and colluded with his friend Douglas Feith in the Pentagon's Office of Special Plans to manipulate prewar intelligence about Saddam's alleged weapons of mass destruction. Cheney didn't like that Wilson refuted Bush's contention in the 2003 State of the Union message that Saddam tried to buy enriched uranium from Niger. In Cheney's mind, ordering Libby to out Wilson's wife was (a) appropriate payback for a gutsy critic and (b) an adroit attempt to discredit Wilson by showing his link to Plame at the CIA.

      Fitzgerald was vilified as a zealous prosecutor, taking four long years to bring charges against only one man. No one, including Libby, was charged with violating the federal law protecting covert agents. “If someone knowingly tells a lie under oath, it is every prosecutors duty to bring charges,” said Fitzgerald to the press after the verdict. “We knew Mr. Libby had told a story, and we could not walk away from that,” raising the $64,000 question: Why would a brilliant lawyer, like Libby, make up such a cock-and-bull story? “I do not understand why he did that, or what advice of counsel he had. It is a real question in this case. It defies explanation,” said veteran Washington attorney Bob Bennett, who defended President Bill Clinton in the Paula Corbin Jones case. Bennett scratched his head trying to figure out why Libby would have fibbed and self-destructed.

      Looking at the bigger picture, Libby pledged his allegiance to Cheney. He forgot his oath to the flag, demanding loyalty to the rule of law. He protected Cheney from the indignity and embarrassment revealed in the trial that he ordered Libby to break the law to protect his dirty little secret that the Iraq war was based on bogus intelligence, cherry-picked by the White House and Pentagon. No one will ever know the specifics of Cheney's secret Energy Task Force in 2001 to know whether it discussed the possibility of going after Iraqi oil. In June 2004, the Supreme Court ruled the White House had the right to assert executive privilege. Fitzgerald had a more benign explanation why Libby lied: He believed Libby panicked after realizing he broke the law outing Plame, concocted a story and blamed it on reporters. Fitzgerald's story doesn't give Libby enough credit.

      Libby's trial exposed the blind loyalty demanded by the White House to defend the Iraq war. Instead of remembering his pledge to the flag, Libby swore his allegiance to Cheney, throwing himself under the bus. No one told Libby to lie. Libby couldn't with a straight face tell investigators he had amnesia. Nor could he implicate Cheney by taking the fifth. Had he refused to incriminate himself, it would have pointed fingers at Cheney and, possibly, Bush. Devoted public servants can't be expected to violate their loyalty to the Constitution to defend superiors demanding blinding loyalty. Whether Libby gets a new trial, wins an appeal or gets an eventual presidential pardon is anyone's guess. Like the mafia, Libby knows if he sucks it up and remains silent, he'll make a good living outside the government. While he faces 25 years when sentenced June 5, he knows he'll get his wrist slapped.

About the Author

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.

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