LIBBY AND CHENEY….Here’s today’s bombshell in the Valerie Plame case:
I. Lewis Libby Jr., Vice President Dick Cheney?s chief of staff, first learned about the C.I.A. officer at the heart of the leak investigation in a conversation with Mr. Cheney weeks before her identity became public in 2003, lawyers involved in the case said Monday.
Notes of the previously undisclosed conversation between Mr. Libby and Mr. Cheney on June 12, 2003, appear to differ from Mr. Libby?s testimony to a federal grand jury that he initially learned about the C.I.A. officer, Valerie Wilson, from journalists, the lawyers said.
….Mr. Libby?s notes indicate that Mr. Cheney had gotten his information about Ms. Wilson from George J. Tenet, the director of central intelligence, in response to questions from the vice president about Mr. Wilson.
An anonymous source quoted later in the story disputes this, saying he “strongly doubted that the White House learned about Ms. Plame from Mr. Tenet.”
Still, that doesn’t get Libby off the hook. It’s not nice to lie to a grand jury.
