CREW LAWSUIT RESULTS IN RELEASE OF NOTES OF CHENEY'S FBI INTERVIEW IN WILSON LEAK CASE

[kpete]

Source: CREW

CREW LAWSUIT RESULTS IN RELEASE OF NOTES OF CHENEY'S FBI INTERVIEW IN WILSON LEAK CASE

30 Oct 2009 // Washington, D.C. - Today, after successfully winning a lawsuit against the Department of Justice, under court order, CREW received documents related to former Vice President Dick Cheney’s interview with the FBI in the investigation into the leak of Valerie Plame Wilson’s covert CIA identity. The transcript reveals that Mr. Cheney – generally credited with razor sharp intellect and recall – demonstrated an astonishing inability to recollect even simple facts much less the numerous conversations others have testified to regarding his involvement in the administration’s efforts to discredit former Ambassador Joe Wilson. Mr. Cheney’s memory frequently failed to improve, even when confronted with his own hand-written notes. The transcript does indicate however, that Mr. Cheney held Mr. Wilson in low regard and called the CIA’s decision to send Mr. Wilson to Niger “amateur-hour.”

Melanie Sloan, executive director of CREW said, “For years the American people have wondered what role Vice President Cheney played in outing former CIA officer Valerie Plame Wilson. While we may never know the whole story, with the release of these documents we are one step closer.” Sloan continued, “In his closing statement at Scooter Libby’s trial, Special Counsel Fitzgerald said a cloud remained over the vice-president. Mr. Cheney’s near total amnesia regarding his role in this monumental Washington scandal – resulting in the conviction of his top aide – shows why.”

Consistent with President Obama’s promise of transparency, the administration did not appeal the court’s order.

Click here to read the interview transcript, and read leak investigation notes here and here.
http://www.citizensforethics.org/files/20091030%20-%20Cheney%20302%20(redacted).pdf
http://www.citizensforethics.org/files/20091030%20-%20Cheney%20302%20notes%20(redacted).pdf
http://www.citizensforethics.org/files/20091030%20-%20Cheney%20302%20outline%20and%20notes%20(redacted).pdf


Read more: http://www.citizensforethics.org/node/43169

[Mz Pip]

1. Glad to hear that Obama won't appeal

Why should the Obama Administration do anything to protect the likes of Dick Wad?

Now I'll take some time to read this.

[Zen Democrat]

7. Ha! Reminds me of the old Al Franken comment.

After Armey so infamously called Barney Frank, "Barney Fag" - Franken said he understood the slip up because he himself would so often refer to "Dick Wad" when he meant to say Dick Armey.

I love Al Franken.

[ooglymoogly]

25. +1 laugh, 1 chortle, 1 snort and a guffaw and add 1 more

to the seasoned Al Franken fan club, and yes I mean AL FRANKEN, and yes, the real AL FRANKEN, that would be you AL FRANKEN; The funny, the glorious, the smart, the fearless AL FRANKEN and I hope someday, president AL FRANKEN.

[felinetta]

28. Thanks for that. I remember when Franken said that. Great trip down memory lane.

[felinetta]

29. So basically 5 deferment Cheney can't recall key events and neither can

Scooter.  And let's not forget Alberto Gonzales when
testifying, pretty much just kept saying 
he did not recall.  These guys are either incompetent or
LYING.  I choose lying.  Reminds me of
Watergate.  There was a lot of "I don't recall"
statements floated under oath.

[tblue37]

33. And Iran-Contra. nt

[mzmolly]

30. OMG

that's a riot! :rofl:

[No Elephants]

39. I do, too.

[bjobotts]

22. "Consistent with President Obama’s promise of transparency".Is that a joke or what?

[robertpaulsen]

2. K & R! Thanks for staying on top of this, kpete!

:kick:

[Canuckistanian]

3. Obama's promise of transparency? I don't think so.

I think the appeal wasn't pursued for other reasons.

[DallasNE]

32. Maybe That Will Teach Cheney

A thing or two about dithering and how it can cut both ways.

[BluDemocratGirl]

35. You got that right!

[Canuckistanian]

44. Good one!

Oops, I missed the date for filing that appeal... oh ,well.

[pennylane100]

4. Time to donate to CREW again.

[stop the bleeding]

5. Special Counsel Fitzgerald said a cloud remained over the vice-president

Thanks kpete!

[Demeter]

6. Dick "Stonewall" Cheney

He could give Nixon Lessons. And probably did.

[libodem]

8. No joke

he undoubtedly did. He learned well. He wrote the book on covering your tracks and hiring spooks that never speak about the mission.

[dixiegrrrrl]

9. Gonzales Disease strikes again.

[Hissyspit]

10. I'm attending a dinner/reception next week w/ Ms. Plame

I think it will be an interesting conversation.

[cascadiance]

18. See if you can find out how Marc Grossman fit in to the whole "exposing Brewster Jennings" thing...

Perhaps there's some stuff she still can't talk about, but I'm really curious if she would support or dismiss the notion that Brewster Jennings was exposed by Marc Grossman a lot earlier, that Sibel Edmonds testified happened in her recent court depositions. I have seen it noted that Grossman was a "classmate" of Joe Wilson in college, so perhaps ask that sort of question tactfully.

[Faygo Kid]

11. Cheney told FBI he had no idea who leaked Plame ID

Source: Associated Press

WASHINGTON – Vice President Dick Cheney told the FBI that he had no idea who leaked to the news media that Valerie Plame, wife of a Bush administration critic, worked for the CIA.

The FBI summary of Cheney's interview from 2004 reflects that the vice president had deep concern about Plame's husband, Joseph Wilson, a former U.S. ambassador in Africa who said the administration had twisted prewar intelligence on Iraq.

Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, was convicted of perjury, obstruction and lying to the FBI in the probe of who leaked Plame's identity to the news media.

The FBI interview summary was released Friday to a watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. . . .

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091030/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_cheney_cia_leak

---

Love that this kind of stuff is released late on a Friday afternoon. Gee, ya think he lied there?

Also, multiple "did not recall" references by Cheney in the article. Must have attended the same classes as Alberto Gonzalez.

[Demeter]

12. Poor Dear Was Having a Ronald Reagan Moment

or maybe another stroke....

[MiniMe]

13. Except St. Ron really didn't remember, it was the alzheimer's

[BeHereNow]

14. He is despicable. And thoroughly EVIL to the bone.

What I find most distressing though, is that he will
most likely get away with it.
On earth that is... now hell is a different matter.
I personally hope there is a hell and he will be given
preferential treatment there for the duration of his stay.
BHN:evilgrin:

[Botany]

16. Waterboard his ass

Betya' he will talk then.

The outing of Plame must have caused the deaths of many people ..... Cheney has blood up to his eyeballs.

BTW they have his writing on the NY Times op ed by Joe Wilson.

[SnakeEyes]

17. It happened so long ago...

I don't even remember the details. Can someone tell me the link/time/details or whatever between Dick Cheney and Armitage with regard to Armitage leaking Plame's name?

[No Elephants]

41. Windex, anyone?

60 posts since 2006.

Don't be such a stranger.

[kpete]

15. VOMIT!

The Taxpayers Paid Dick Cheney’s Personal Defense Attorney to Obstruct Any Inquiries Into His Crimes
By: emptywheel Friday October 30, 2009 4:00 pm

Okay, prepare for the onslaught of weeds. He’s one that made me vomit, from the very beginning of the Cheney interview report.

Vice President Cheney was represented by Terrence O’Donnell and Emmet T. Flood of the law firm of Williams and Connolly…

Cheney was formally represented not only by Terry O’Donnell but also by Emmet Flood. Who, sometime around the time when Pat Fitzgerald noted the cloud over Cheney’s head, got hired by the White House. Who, for the last two years of the Bush Administration, took the lead in preventing Congress or anyone else from getting documents that would implicate Rove or–you guessed it–Dick Cheney.

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/10/30/the-taxpayers-paid-dick-cheneys-personal-defense-attorney-to-work-at-the-white-house/

[stop the bleeding]

21. wow

Patrick Fitzgerald made it clear that Dick Cheney was the ultimate target of the CIA Leak Case. And Dick Cheney did the obvious thing any bureaucratic master would do. He put his own personal defense lawyer on the payroll to help obstruct any efforts to expose his role in outing Valerie Plame.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

23. Is Cheney the 'untouchable'

who is actually going to finally 'touch' him?

[annabanana]

26. Now THERE'S some money that should be subject to a clawback. . .n/t

[Rosa Luxemburg]

19. Cheney should have been behind bars long ago!

[Patsy Stone]

20. Yeah!

It's about time. :toast:, CREW!

[defendandprotect]

24. Was going to post this -- presume same info?

Cheney told FBI he had no idea who leaked Plame ID

By PETE YOST, Associated Press Writer – 30 mins ago

WASHINGTON – Vice President Dick Cheney told the FBI he had no idea who leaked to the news media that Valerie Plame, wife of a Bush administration critic, worked for the CIA.

An FBI summary of Cheney's interview from 2004 reflects that the vice president had deep concern about Plame's husband, Joseph Wilson, a former U.S. ambassador in Africa who said the administration had twisted prewar intelligence on Iraq.

Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, was convicted of perjury, obstruction and lying to the FBI in the probe of who leaked Plame's identity to the news media. At the end of Libby's trial, prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald said that "there is a cloud over the vice president" in the leaking of Plame's identity.

Following Libby's conviction, President George W. Bush commuted Libby's 30-month prison sentence but rejected Cheney's vehement appeals to pardon Libby.

The 28-page FBI interview summary was released Friday to a watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which sued to get the material under the Freedom of Information Act.

In the interview, whose participants included Fitzgerald, Cheney told agents that he did not recall having a conversation about either Plame or her husband with Bush.

The vice president said he probably discussed Wilson with Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove, but told the FBI he would not have talked to Rove about Wilson's wife.

Cheney's denials that he talked about Plame are among the few things in the lengthy interview with the FBI that Cheney appeared certain about. He repeatedly said he could not recall key events. Among them, he said he did not recall discussing Wilson's wife with Libby before her CIA employment was publicly revealed by conservative columnist Robert Novak in mid-July 2003.

Evidence at Libby's criminal trial showed that Cheney had told Libby about Wilson's wife in mid-June 2003.

According to courtroom testimony, Rove was one of Novak's sources for his column disclosing Plame's CIA identity and Rove and Libby were sources for Time magazine reporter Matt Cooper, who also wrote a story identifying Plame.

Cheney said he was not aware of any discussions Libby may have had with Rove about Wilson or Wilson's wife, and Cheney said Libby did not tell him about any such discussions.
The vice president advised the agents that he had no idea what Libby knew on the days before Plame's CIA identity was publicly revealed.

Cheney said he did not recall if he told Libby about Wilson's wife and her employment at the CIA or if Libby revealed to the vice president his independent knowledge about that fact.

In a New York Times opinion piece in July 2003, Wilson accused the Bush administration of twisting intelligence about Iraq's efforts to buy a uranium "yellowcake," in the African nation of Niger. Bush referred to the yellowcake during his Jan. 28, 2003, State of the Union speech to Congress as he was trying to rally support for going to war with Iraq. Yellowcake is a powdered form of uranium that could be used in a nuclear weapon if purified and enriched.

The year before, the CIA had sent Wilson to Niger to determine the accuracy of the uranium reports. Wilson brought back denials of any sale and argued such a sale was not likely to happen.
In his FBI interview, Cheney said his initial reaction to the Wilson article was his sense that it was "amateur hour" out at the CIA.

Cheney said The New York Times piece was disturbing. Cheney said he was most disturbed because it was now being made to look as though the vice president had personally sent Wilson on the trip. The vice president said that all he had done was to make a legitimate inquiry of a CIA briefer in February 2002 about Niger and Iraq.

Plame was outed in Novak's column as a CIA employee eight days after Wilson attacked the administration in The New York Times piece.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091030/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_cheney_cia_leak

[Overseas]

27. K&R. //nt

[mzmolly]

31. I'm glad Obama didn't "dither" by appealing the decision and all.

:evilgrin:

[kpete]

34. In ’04 Interview, Cheney Denied Role in C.I.A. Leak

Source: New York Times

In ’04 Interview, Cheney Denied Role in C.I.A. Leak

By DAVID JOHNSTON
Published: October 30, 2009

WASHINGTON — Former Vice President Dick Cheney denied in an interview with a special prosecutor investigating the C.I.A. leak case that he had played any role in the disclosure of the identity of Valerie Wilson as an intelligence officer, according to F.B.I. documents released Friday.

Some of the assertions by Mr. Cheney in his interview with the prosecutor on May 8, 2004, appeared to conflict with testimony at the 2007 trial of his chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby Jr., who was convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice and whose sentence was later commuted by President George W. Bush.

The interview documents were made public through a lawsuit brought by the organization Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, and included a 28-page typewritten summary of the interview with the prosecutor, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, and copies of handwritten notes taken by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. In a statement, the organization said Mr. Cheney had displayed “an astonishing inability to recollect even simple facts.”

Mr. Cheney said in the interview that he could not recall how or when he had learned of Ms. Wilson’s identity and that he could not recall discussing it with Mr. Libby. Mr. Cheney denied knowing who, if anyone, at the White House had talked to the columnist Robert Novak about Ms. Wilson’s identity. He said he did not know of any reporters who might have been given this information before it was disclosed in Mr. Novak’s column on July 14, 2003.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/31/us/politics/31cheney.html?_r=1

[Major Hogwash]

36. Imagine that, a conflict in his 2 statements.

You know, back in the 50s, this guy would already be in jail waiting to go to the gas chamber.
But, now, we're all supposed to act like it was no big deal.

Like it was just a game of Password hosted by Alan Lundun on tv that he lost.
Even though the television audience was told what the password was.

"And the password is Valerie Plame".

Incredible.

[Amonester]

37. We R Being Told 2 Look Forward over & over

Nothing Will Come Out Of this, Or I'll Beleive It When I'll See It (for a change...)

K & R anyway.

[leveymg]

38. Claiming that you don't recall something that any reasonable person would is PERJURY

This is no real defense, if he were put on trail. It's the basis for an Obstruction of Justice charge. Dick has no plausible deniability, there isn't even any deniability that he wouldn't lie. Motive, opportunity, means, evidence, it's all there to convict the defective heartless bastard.

[felinetta]

40. Cheney is not my definition of a man. He had to have 5 deferments, shoots little birds,

and won't take responsibility in outing Valeria Plame.

[No Elephants]

42. Shoots little birds and his hunting companion--then has his hostess phone in

the story nice and early on a Sunday morning to a tiny local--forgot--paper or station.

With friends like Cheney, who needs enemas?

[Warren Stupidity]

43. Fitzgerald should be ashamed of his failure in this case.

Our beloved Fitzmas Savior was punked by the VP. What a travesty.