Report: Bush ordered Cheney to use classified info to discredit Wilson
RAW STORY Published: Monday July 3, 2006
President Bush told Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald that he instructed Vice President Cheney to use classified information to discredit former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, according to a report in the National Journal.
Excerpts from the National Journal story follow: #
Bush told prosecutors he directed Cheney to disclose classified information that would not only defend his administration but also discredit Wilson.
Bush also told federal prosecutors during his June 24, 2004, interview in the Oval Office that he had directed Cheney, as part of that broader effort, to disclose highly classified intelligence information that would not only defend his administration but also discredit Wilson, the sources said.
But Bush told investigators that he was unaware that Cheney had directed I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the vice president's chief of staff, to covertly leak the classified information to the media instead of releasing it to the public after undergoing the formal governmental declassification processes.
Bush also said during his interview with prosecutors that he had never directed anyone to disclose the identity of then-covert CIA officer Valerie Plame, Wilson's wife. Bush said he had no information that Cheney had disclosed Plame's identity or directed anyone else to do so.
Libby has said that neither the president nor the vice president directed him or other administration officials to disclose Plame's CIA employment to the press. Cheney has also denied having any role in the disclosure.
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