Hume declared Libby "not responsible" for Plame leak

On the January 17 edition of Fox News' Special Report, host and Washington bureau managing editor Brit Hume asserted as fact that Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby was "not responsible" for leaking the information that Valerie Plame was a CIA officer. However, Libby's indictment does allege that he discussed Plame's CIA employment with then-New York Times reporter Judith Miller before Plame's employment was publicly revealed by Robert Novak in a July 14, 2003, column. And, after sitting in jail for 85 days, Miller herself identified Libby as her source for the information on Plame.

After discussing events that day at Libby's trial, Hume stated that "Libby is accused of lying about what he heard from whom and whom he told in the leak of the name of CIA employee Valerie Plame, a leak for which he was not responsible." As Media Matters for America has noted, Plame is the wife of former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who, in a July 6, 2003, New York Times op-ed, cast doubt on President Bush's claims about Iraq's purported attempts to buy uranium from Niger. Novak's column revealing Plame's CIA employment was based on information from then-Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, which was allegedly confirmed by White House senior adviser Karl Rove.

While Libby did not divulge Plame's identity to Novak, prosecutors have alleged that Libby did discuss Plame's CIA employment with Miller on three occasions prior to the publication of Novak's column. As Media Matters has noted, the indictment special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald filed against Libby on October 28, 2005, asserts that Libby mentioned Plame's CIA employment to Miller on June 23, July 8, and July 12:

14. On or about June 23, 2003, LIBBY met with New York Times reporter Judith Miller. During this meeting LIBBY was critical of the CIA, and disparaged what he termed "selective leaking" by the CIA concerning intelligence matters. In discussing the CIA's handling of Wilson's trip to Niger, LIBBY informed her that Wilson's wife might work at a bureau of the CIA.

[...]

17. On or about the morning of July 8, 2003, LIBBY met with New York Times reporter Judith Miller. When the conversation turned to the subject of Joseph Wilson, LIBBY asked that the information LIBBY provided on the topic of Wilson be attributed to a "former Hill staffer" rather than to a "senior administration official," as had been the understanding with respect to other information that LIBBY provided to Miller during this meeting. LIBBY thereafter discussed with Miller Wilson's trip and criticized the CIA reporting concerning Wilson's trip. During this discussion, LIBBY advised Miller of his belief that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA.

[...]

24. On or about July 12, 2003, in the late afternoon, LIBBY spoke by telephone with Judith Miller of the New York Times and discussed Wilson's wife, and that she worked at the CIA.

As Media Matters has noted, whether leakers identified Plame by her name -- "Valerie Plame" or "Valerie Wilson" -- or as "Wilson's wife" is irrelevant, as a practical matter, because a quick Google search of Joseph Wilson at the time would have produced Plame's actual name.

In addition, in an October 16, 2005, New York Times article, Miller reported what she told the grand jury about the June 23 and July 8 meetings with Libby:

In May and in early June, Nicholas D. Kristof, a columnist at The Times, wrote of Mr. Wilson's trip to Niger without naming him. Mr. Kristof wrote that Mr. Wilson had been sent to Niger "at the behest" of Mr. Cheney's office.

My notes [from the June 23, 2003, meeting] indicate that Mr. Libby took issue with the suggestion that his boss had had anything to do with Mr. Wilson's trip. "Veep didn't know of Joe Wilson," I wrote, referring to the vice president. "Veep never knew what he did or what was said. Agency did not report to us."

Soon afterward Mr. Libby raised the subject of Mr. Wilson's wife for the first time. I wrote in my notes, inside parentheses, "Wife works in bureau?" I told Mr. Fitzgerald that I believed this was the first time I had been told that Mr. Wilson's wife might work for the C.I.A. The prosecutor asked me whether the word "bureau" might not mean the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Yes, I told him, normally. But Mr. Libby had been discussing the C.I.A., and therefore my impression was that he had been speaking about a particular bureau within the agency that dealt with the spread of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. As to the question mark, I said I wasn't sure what it meant. Maybe it meant I found the statement interesting. Maybe Mr. Libby was not certain whether Mr. Wilson's wife actually worked there.

[...]

At that [July 8, 2003] breakfast meeting, our conversation also turned to Mr. Wilson's wife. My notes contain a phrase inside parentheses: "Wife works at Winpac." Mr. Fitzgerald asked what that meant. Winpac stood for Weapons Intelligence, Non-Proliferation, and Arms Control, the name of a unit within the C.I.A. that, among other things, analyzes the spread of unconventional weapons.

I said I couldn't be certain whether I had known Ms. Plame's identity before this meeting, and I had no clear memory of the context of our conversation that resulted in this notation. But I told the grand jury that I believed that this was the first time I had heard that Mr. Wilson's wife worked for Winpac. In fact, I told the grand jury that when Mr. Libby indicated that Ms. Plame worked for Winpac, I assumed that she worked as an analyst, not as an undercover operative.

From the January 17 edition of Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume:

HUME: It was slow going again today at the federal courthouse here in Washington as lawyers continued to put together a jury to hear perjury charges against former White House aide Scooter Libby. One potential juror, who made the first cut, at least, is an unnamed former Washington Post reporter who wrote a book on espionage and said he could be impartial, even though he had connections to several key witnesses.

Libby is accused of lying about what he heard from whom and whom he told in the leak of the name of CIA employee Valerie Plame, a leak for which he was not responsible.

Next on Special Report, another bloody attack in Iraq, not far from yesterday's deadly explosions at that Baghdad university. That story when we return.