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Copies of handwritten notes by Vice President Dick Cheney, introduced at trial by defense attorneys for former White House staffer I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, would appear to implicate George W. Bush in the Plame CIA Leak case.

Bush has long maintained that he was unaware of attacks by any member of his administration against [former ambassador Joseph] Wilson. The ex-envoy's stinging rebukes of the administration's use of pre-war Iraq intelligence led Libby and other White House officials to leak Wilson's wife's covert CIA status to reporters in July 2003 in an act of retaliation.

But Cheney's notes, which were introduced into evidence Tuesday during Libby's perjury and obstruction-of-justice trial, call into question the truthfulness of President Bush's vehement denials about his prior knowledge of the attacks against Wilson. The revelation that Bush may have known all along that there was an effort by members of his office to discredit the former ambassador begs the question: Was the president also aware that senior members of his administration compromised Valerie Plame's undercover role with the CIA?

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Then, the words are crossed out.

So, we have a document in which Cheney's memo might have implicated the President, except for the fact that he crossed that out, and wrote it in the passive voice, so no subject is asserted.

If Cheney ever testified, he will say:

First, I wrote the words "this Pres.", but I immediately changed it because it was wrong.

ETA: After rereading I found this:

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Further, the highly explicit nature of Cheney's comments not only hints at a rift between Cheney and Bush over what Cheney felt was the scapegoating of Libby, but also raises serious questions about potentially criminal actions by Bush. If Bush did indeed play an active role in encouraging Libby to take the fall to protect Karl Rove, as Libby's lawyers articulated in their opening statements, then that could be viewed as criminal involvement by Bush.

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If they had a rift over it, as explicitely stated by Cheney's notes, how could Bush NOT know?

[ 31 January 2007: Message edited by: remind ]

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Originally posted by remind:
It simply is NOT possible that a VP should know more than the President.

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Originally posted by quelar:
But with this president he was probably playing with some lego's at his desk while Dick had the meeting...

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