The Special Counsel’s office has released the transcripts of Scooter Libby’s grand jury testimony that was played in court on Wednesday and Thursday. You can get the .pdfs for his March 5th testimony and his March 24th testimony. They are both case studies in perjury. I have selected a portion from Libby’s second appearance before the grand jury for your reading pleasure (below the fold). It’s great stuff.
Just as a little primer, Fitzgerald is in the middle of questioning Scooter about a little problem that he has. He leaked classified information from the 2002 National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) to NYT’s reporter Judith Miller (her co-writer Michael Gordon is launching the Iran product as we speak). Libby has only one possible alibi for doing this and that is that the President told him to. Essentially, if the President wants classified information known to the public, or even to one lowly lapdog member of the press, this administration argues that that information immediately becomes declassified.
Except Fitzgerald had accumulated a ton of evidence that the very topic of declassification to key segments of the 2002 NIE had been up for debate among Bush’s chief of staff, his national security advisor, his deputry national security advisor and the CIA director in Cheney and Scooter’s presence after Libby had leaked to Miller….AND HE AND THE VICE-PRESIDENT didn’t say a peep about the President having already declassified the information. Why? Because they never told Bush. They just went out and leaked classified information, including Valerie Plame’s name. When they got busted they concocted a story about the President authorizing the whole thing because they had no other legal alternative.
Watch it unfold, it’s delicious.
Q. And do you know when the Vice President talked to the President to get the permission for you to discuss this with the press and in effect in your mind declassify the
document? [ed note: this refers to portions of the 2002 National Intelligence Estimate pertaining to uranium and efforts to make weapons of mass destruction]A. No, sir.
Q. And were you present for that conversation?
A. No sir.
Q. What did the Vice President tell you about that
conversation?A. He told me he had talked to the President and we should go ahead and, you know, talk to the press about the
Q. And do you know if the Vice President told the
President what the legal issue was in terms of sharing classified information?A. I don’t know what happened in that conversation. the Vice President knew that we needed to have the President’s authority to talk about the document, or that
section of the document.Q. And was anyone else present with you when you
ldiscussed with the Vice President the issue of whether or not you could be authorized to discuss classified material with the press or the public?A. No, sir, but I referred him to the conversation with David Addington.
Q. So as far as you know, did the Vice President and David Addington discuss that issue?
A. I don’t know.
Q. And do you know if the Vice President and the
President talked about it in person or by telephone?A. I don’t know.
Q. And do you know how long before your July 8th
meeting with Judith Miller that conversation took place?A. I don’t. My sense was that it was within a few
days, but I don’t really know.Q. Could it have been the day before, July 7th, as far as you know?
A. Could have been, or it could have been some time at the end of the previous weekend. I mean, excuse me, I misspoke. End of the previous week, before the weekend. It could have been any day in that period.
Q. And who else in the administration was told, as far as you know, that you were authorized to discuss the relevant
portions of the NIE with Judith Miller?A. Nobody as far as I know.
Q. So as far you know, the only three people who knew about this would be the President, the Vice President and yourself?
A. Correct, sir.
Q. And going up to July 18th, is it fair to say that
there were a number of different conversations within the I
administration about declassifying the NIE?A. Yes sir.
Q. And during those conversations did you ever tell any
of the other people that in fact the President had already
declassified the NIE in your mind?A. No, sir.
Q. And in your presence did the vice President ever tell these other people that you understood that the NIE had
already been declassified?A. No, sir.
Q. And as far as you know, was the CIA or Director
Tenet ever notified that the NIE had been declassified in your
mind as of July 8th with regard to those portions concerning
uranium?A. No, sir.
Q. And were there conversations in which Mr. Hadley discussed declassification of the NIE?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Were there conversations where Dr. Rice discussed declassification of the NIE?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Were there conversations in which Andrew Card, the Chief of Staff, discussed declassification of the NIE?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. And during all those conversations it remained
unknown to them that in fact you understood that the NIE had already been declassified?A. By the President. Yes, sir.
Q. And is it fair to say that on July 10th the Vice President, according to your notes, indicated that he would recommend to the President declassification of the relevant
parts of the NIE?A. My recollection is that’s what he was telling Steve Hadley should pass on to Director Tenet, that they wanted to
get those portions declassified and then they were
declassified.Q. And so in your mind, the Vice President was telling Steve Hadley to tell George Tenet that we, the Office of Vice
President, would recommend declassification even though at the
time, according to your account, both he and you knew that the
NIE had already been declassified?A. Yes, sir.
Q. And is it fair to say that in the following
conversations during that week there are a number of
conversations where people discussed declassification where
you and the Vice President knew that in your mind the President had already authorized you to discuss this with the
press? Correct?A. Yes, sir.
Q. Was that unusual for you to have the National
Security Advisor, Director of Central Intelligence and the White House Chief of Staff, among others, in the dark as to something that you had done regarding declassification?A. It is not unusual for the Vice President to tell me something which I am not allowed to share with others. And it’s so — it doesn’t happen very often — well, it happens often that the Vice President will tell me something that I
cannot share with other people and I will sit in the room with them while they talk about something. I think that many times when they know something and I know something, but neither of
us know that the other person knows it or is supposed to know and we don’t talk about it, that happens quite frequently actually.
