Veep's new can of worms Says he's allowed to clear gov't secrets
BY KENNETH R. BAZINET DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON - Vice President Cheney may be getting over one political headache to find he has got another, this time for asserting he has the authority to declassify government secrets.
Critics suspect he may be relying on that power to protect himself from legal trouble.
Cheney stated he can declassify secret intelligence during an interview he gave Wednesday that was meant to end the controversy surrounding his shooting of a hunting pal.
Toward the end of the interview, Cheney was asked about the case of his former chief of staff, Lewis (Scooter) Libby. Libby was indicted during the investigation of who unmasked CIA spy Valerie Plame.
Cheney praised Libby and went on to say, "There is an executive order that specifies who has classification authority, and obviously focuses first and foremost on the President, but also includes the vice president."
During the probe into the Plame leak, special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald discovered that certain reporters also were given details about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction - information that was still classified and against the law to share with the press.
Court documents show Libby claims superiors ordered him to disclose the information.
If Cheney claims he had declassified that information, it might help him, or anyone else allegedly involved, to avoid prosecution, legal experts surmised.
Cheney was authorized to declassify documents in an executive order signed by President Bush on March 25, 2003, giving the veep power to act without checking with agencies that initially classified the information.
Legal experts note that Cheney, known for being very secretive and preferring to operate behind closed doors, is not the type of person to declassify many documents.
"The government is going to want to keep as much information classified as possible," said Fordham Law Prof. Martin Flaherty, a constitutional law expert.
Flaherty speculated that if Cheney uses his authority as a shield in the leak case, it could entice Democrats to consider exploring impeachment.
"There is the 'I word' and frankly it may not be that outlandish a possibility. The question is, would the Democrats have the you-know-what to do it?" Flaherty said.