Plame, Cheney, and Treason

Recently declassified documents by the CIA have formally revealed what has been informally known for years. Agent Valerie Plame was covert at the time that her name became public in July of 2003. Plame, of course, is at the heart of yet another scandal involving the Bush Administration. Her husband, Joseph Wilson, wrote a scathing New York Times Op-Ed aimed at President Bush’s reasoning for the war with Iraq early in July 2003. As retribution, the administration leaked Plame’s name to the press only a week later. It was this affair that lead to the indictment and conviction of I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney’s former top aide. Libby was convicted of obstructing the investigation into the matter.

Beyond ruining the career of an individual, one who had devoted her professional life to the service of our country’s intelligence agency, the matter was important because the revelation of Plame to the media could be a violation of federal law. For it to be such a violation, the agent whose identity was revealed had to be covert at the time of the revelation and the revealer had to know that the agent was covert. The former part of the equation is now an established fact. A strong case can be made that the threshold can be met for the latter part in the person of Dick Cheney.

Throughout the trial of Libby, and in his sentencing filing, Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald both directly and indirectly made the connection between Libby’s wrongdoing and the likelihood that it was the result of his work for his boss. Dan Froomkin outlined Mr. Fitzgerald’s analysis in the 29 May 2007 on-line edition of the Washington Post.

Despite all the public interest in the case, Fitzgerald has repeatedly asserted that grand-jury secrecy rules prohibit him from being more forthcoming about either the course of his investigation or any findings beyond those he disclosed to make the case against Libby. But when his motives have been attacked during court proceedings, Fitzgerald has occasionally shown flashes of anger -- and has hinted that he and his investigative team suspected more malfeasance at higher levels of government than they were able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt.

In Friday's eminently readable court filing, Fitzgerald quotes the Libby defense calling his prosecution "unwarranted, unjust, and motivated by politics." In responding to that charge, the special counsel evidently felt obliged to put Libby's crime in context. And that context is Dick Cheney.

Libby's lies, Fitzgerald wrote, "made impossible an accurate evaluation of the role that Mr. Libby and those with whom he worked played in the disclosure of information regarding Ms. Wilson's CIA employment and about the motivations for their actions."

It was established at trial that it was Cheney himself who first told Libby about Plame's identity as a CIA agent, in the course of complaining about criticisms of the administration's run-up to war leveled by her husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson. And, as Fitzgerald notes: "The evidence at trial further established that when the investigation began, Mr. Libby kept the Vice President apprised of his shifting accounts of how he claimed to have learned about Ms. Wilson's CIA employment."

The investigation, Fitzgerald writes, "was necessary to determine whether there was concerted action by any combination of the officials known to have disclosed the information about Ms. Plame to the media as anonymous sources, and also whether any of those who were involved acted at the direction of others. This was particularly important in light of Mr. Libby's statement to the FBI that he may have discussed Ms. Wilson's employment with reporters at the specific direction of the Vice President." [Froomkin’s italics]

Not clear on the concept yet? Fitzgerald adds: "To accept the argument that Mr. Libby's prosecution is the inappropriate product of an investigation that should have been closed at an early stage, one must accept the proposition that the investigation should have been closed after at least three high-ranking government officials were identified as having disclosed to reporters classified information about covert agent Valerie Wilson, where the account of one of them was directly contradicted by other witnesses, where there was reason to believe that some of the relevant activity may have been coordinated, and where there was an indication from Mr. Libby himself that his disclosures to the press may have been personally sanctioned by the Vice President." [Froomkin’s italics]

Up until now, Fitzgerald's most singeing attack on Cheney came during closing arguments at the Libby trial in February. Libby's lawyers had complained that Fitzgerald was trying to put a "cloud" over Cheney without evidence to back it up -- and that set Fitzgerald off. As I wrote in my Feb. 21 column, the special counsel responded with fire: "There is a cloud over what the Vice President did that week. . . . He had those meetings. He sent Libby off to [meet then-New York Times reporter] Judith Miller at the St. Regis Hotel. At that meeting, the two-hour meeting, the defendant talked about the wife. We didn't put that cloud there. That cloud remains because the defendant has obstructed justice and lied about what happened. . . .

"That's not something that we put there. That cloud is something that we just can't pretend isn't there."

To those of us watching the investigation and trial unfold, Cheney's presence behind the scenes has emerged in glimpses and hints. (The defense's decision not to call Cheney to the stand remains a massive bummer.) But I suspect that people looking back on this story will see it with greater clarity: As a blatant -- and thus far successful -- cover-up for the vice president.

I believe that Cheney is up to his eyeballs in this matter. I believe that Fitzgerald believes this as well. Whether he will be able to bring charges remains to be seen, but it is in doubt. That charges may never arise does not absolve the Vice President of his wrongdoing, wrongdoing that I believe may constitute treason against the United States. He knowingly caused the identity of a covert agent of his government to be revealed. This not only violated the very laws that he is in part charged with upholding, but weakened his country in however small or large a way in so doing. Cheney chose to play politics over the wellbeing of his country. He should be held accountable and I hope very much that Fitzgerald somehow finds the smoking gun necessary to bring him to justice.

31 May 2007