There is the smoking gun. It’s the bottom part (bolded below) of a note Cheney wrote after Scooter Libby came to him upset because Scottie McClellan had exonerated Rove (falsely) in the leaking of Valerie Plame’s employment. Libby had talking points that he wanted McClellan to tell the press. Here they are:
I’ve talked to Libby. I said it was ridiculous about Karl and it is ridiculous about Libby. Libby was not the source of the Novak story. And he did not leak classified information.
Cheney scribbled the following in the margins of Libby’s talking points.
Has to happen today.
Call out to key press saying same thing about Scooter as Karl.
Not going to protect one staffer & sacrifice the guy
this Pres.that was asked to stick his neck in the meat grinder because of the incompetence of others.
This note appears to show that the President asked Scooter Libby to stick his neck out and deal with the allegations Joe Wilson was making (anonymously from May 2003 until he went public on July 6, 2003). This explains why Scooter Libby, and not Cheney’s press contact Cathie Martin, was tasked with talking to the select media. It also explains why information from the classified 2002 National Intelligence Report was unilaterally declassified so that Libby could pass it on to Judith Miller.
It’s also an important point that Cheney considered the whole episode to be based on the ‘incompetence of others’. That might be passing the buck considering it was Cheney’s shop that was so credulous about the Niger forgeries and that pushed so relentlessly to have them included in speeches and intelligence assessements.
Setting that aside, this Cheney note makes it clear that the President ordered Scooter Libby into action. It also shows that Cheney made a decision to lie to Scottie McClellan in order to protect Scooter Libby. Libby was, after all, only following the President’s orders. I don’t know what Cheney testified to before the grand jury, but I think it is highly unlikely that he was truthful.
There is still some question about whether the defense will call Dick Cheney to the stand. I think it will be highly risky for Cheney if he is called. And I don’t mean just politically risky. He will have a hell of a time avoiding perjuring himself or revealing prior perjury.
