White House in Crisis
Fitzgerald's decision to use Libby's statement as part of the prosecution's evidence is a sign that the prosecutor has other statements from high-placed White House individuals like Rove that implicate both Cheney and Libby in the leak of a CIA covert agent's name to the media. However, Fitzgerald also has testimony from Libby that places blame on Bush, in addition to information obtained from over 200 e-mails first reported by the White House to have been mistakenly deleted. Some of the e-mails also implicate Bush and Rove.
Potomac scandal fever: Renewed CIA leak scandal blossoms along with the cherry trees
Sources say that I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's testimony before a grand jury that President Bush, acting through Vice President Dick Cheney, authorized the leak of a 2003 classified National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) to the New York Times is part of bitter internecine finger pointing between Bush and Karl Rove on one hand and Cheney, Libby, and Cheney's current staff on the other. By directly implicating Bush, Cheney can argue that he was merely carrying out the president's orders and passed instructions to Libby to use his media contacts like Judith Miller of the Times and Matt Cooper of Time to pass along selected portions of the NIE, which stated that aluminum tubes acquired by Iraq were intended for uranium enrichment. However, a one-page executive summary included with the NIE was withheld from the leaked segments because it contained a statement that the State and Energy Departments believed the tubes were for conventional weapons, which turned out to be the case. That information would have undercut the Bush administration's claims that Iraq had reconstituted its nuclear program.
Fitzgerald's court filing states: "According to defendant [Libby], at the time of his conversations with Miller and Cooper, he understood that only three people -- the President, the Vice President, and defendant [Libby] -- knew that the key judgments of the NIE had been declassified. Defendant [Libby] testified in the grand jury that he understood that even in the days following his conversation with Ms. Miller, other key officials -- including Cabinet-level officials -- were not made aware of the earlier declassification even as those officials were pressed to carry out a declassification of the NIE, the report about Wilson's trip [to Niger] and another classified document dated January 24, 2003."
The bottom line is that there is now a severe rift between Bush and Cheney. Rove continues to protect Bush while Libby, who at first provided cover for Cheney, is now willing to let the chips fall where they may. As one source put it, Rove is more than willing to "throw Cheney under the bus to protect the president." There is also the possibility that Libby is cooperating with the prosecutor in return for a reduction in his criminal charges.
Washington insiders who were involved in Watergate and maintain contacts with the current administration report that the situation within the Executive Mansion has never been so tense since Watergate. Even the Clinton impeachment pales in comparison to the current situation they claim.