President Bush Needs to Come Clean on CIA Leak

President Bush Needs to Come Clean on CIA Leak

October 31, 2005

On Friday, Scooter Libby, Chief of Staff to Vice President Cheney and Assistant to President Bush, was indicted for one count of obstruction of justice, two counts of perjury and two counts of making false statements. While conservatives see this as a victory of sorts, Libby’s indictment shows that the White House was involved in a serious effort to cover up its involvement in the outing of a CIA operative, and the investigation is ongoing. Other White House officials could still be in legal jeopardy. President Bush has yet to show that he is serious about getting to the bottom of the scandal. President Bush needs come clean about who in the White House was involved in the leak and if he plans to stick by his initial pledge to fire anyone involved.

• Libby’s obstruction hindered prosecution of the underlying crime. While the right is trying to paint Libby’s obstruction charges as proof that no true crime was committed, the truth is that his obstruction of the investigation prevented prosecutors from charging anyone with outing Valerie Plame because they couldn’t prove intent. In his press conference Fitzgerald noted, "As you sit here now, if you're asking me what his motives were, I can't tell you; we haven't charged it ... the harm in an obstruction investigation is it prevents us from making the fine judgments we want to make.”
  
  
• The campaign against Joe Wilson reached far beyond Libby. The Libby indictment provided details of an extensive smear campaign against Joe Wilson. Libby discussed how to discredit Wilson with Vice President Cheney, Karl Rove, Under Secretary of State Marc Grossman, Ari Fleisher and multiple officials aboard the Vice President's plane. And Karl Rove is not yet off the hook. The Washington Post reports, "Two legal sources intimately familiar with Fitzgerald's tactics in this inquiry said they believe Rove remains in significant danger.”
  
  
• President Bush had promised to fire anyone involved in the outing of a CIA agent. We now know that Karl Rove is “Official A” and directly involved in the scandal. By President Bush’s own promise, he should be fired. But if Bush truly sticks to his word, Rove would be just the beginning. As CAP CEO John Podesta noted, "we know that senior Presidential aides National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley and White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan were either complicit in the leak and the cover-up, or grossly negligent in their duties." Also, "Chief of Staff Andrew Card has presided over a White House staff that is guilty of a disservice to the President and the country," and should also resign.