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FBI agent: Libby spoke of CIA-linked talks with Cheney

By Associated press
Published February 2, 2007

WASHINGTON - Former vice presidential aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby acknowledged he may have discussed with Vice President Dick Cheney whether to tell reporters that a prominent war critic's wife worked at the CIA, an FBI agent testified Thursday.

Agent Deborah Bond's brief description of Libby's alleged acknowledgment was about the only new information disclosed on the day. Otherwise, Libby's perjury trial was devoted mostly to dealing with vigorous and repeated defense efforts to exclude evidence that Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald called "the guts of our case."

If Libby did acknowledge a discussion with Cheney about revealing Plame's job, it is likely to have more impact on political debate about the Plame leak than on the trial because Libby is not accused of the actual leak.

Bond said that during Libby's second FBI interview on Nov. 23, 2003, Libby described flying back from Norfolk, Va., with Cheney on July 12, 2003, amid controversy over claims made by Plame's husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson.

Libby told the FBI he went to the front of the plane to get a statement Cheney wanted released to the press. It denied Wilson's suggestion that Cheney was behind Wilson's trip to Niger in 2002 to investigate a report that Iraq was trying to buy uranium there for nuclear weapons.

[Last modified February 2, 2007, 01:37:27]