Following President Bush's July 2 decision to commute former vice presidential chief of staff I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby's prison sentence, Colorado media outlets repeated the false claim that former deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage's role in the leaking of ex-CIA operative Valerie Plame's name to the press exonerates Libby. Co-host Dan Caplis of 630 KHOW-AM, host Mike Rosen of Newsradio 850 KOA, and The Daily Sentinel of Grand Junction all argued that Armitage leaked Plame's identity as a CIA agent, and contended that prosecutors therefore had no reason to continue pursuing Libby, who on March 6 was found guilty on one count of obstructing justice, one count of making false statements, and two counts of perjury. As Media Matters for America has noted, while Armitage was the original source for Robert D. Novak's July 14, 2003, column leaking Plame's CIA identity, Libby disclosed it before the publication of Novak's column -- specifically, to then-New York Times reporter Judith Miller.

Continuing its misleading coverage of the Libby case, the Daily Sentinel in a July 4 editorial (“Only Kafka smiles”) claimed, “Libby remains convicted of obstructing a criminal investigation into a crime that was never committed.” The Sentinel further asserted, “It was former State Department official Richard Armitage, not Libby,” who exposed Plame's CIA identity:

Virtually from the start of his investigation, Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald knew the identity of the person who allegedly “leaked” information to national newspaper columnist Robert Novak that Valerie Plame was a CIA operative. It was former State Department official Richard Armitage, not Libby.

But Armitage's involvement didn't fit into the official story template of “Plamegate,” -- i.e., a member of the Bush inner circle deliberately “outed” Plame in order to discredit her husband, Joe Wilson, after he challenged the Bush administration's claims that Saddam Hussein sought to acquire nuclear bomb-making material.

Fitzgerald should have shut down his investigation as soon as he learned of Armitage's role. Instead, Fitzgerald went trolling and hooked Libby. We said it before and we'll say it a final time. Libby should never have been prosecuted and it's to this administration's great discredit that he ever was.

Similarly, during the July 2 broadcast of 630 KHOW-AM's The Caplis & Silverman Show, after accusing Fitzgerald of having “either a political or a personal motivation,” Caplis asserted that the prosecutor “knew early in this investigation who leaked her identity: Richard Armitage. Why continue beyond that if you're not going to charge him?” Caplis also, as Rosen has in the past, falsely claimed that Plame was not a covert CIA operative at the time her identity was leaked, contrary to CIA documentation stating that she was.

On his July 3 broadcast, Rosen continued his pattern of voicing misinformation about the Libby case, claiming that “Valerie Plame's identity was not first disclosed by Scooter Libby. It was disclosed by Richard Armitage. Everybody knows that now.”

However, while widespread media reports noted that Armitage was the initial source for the first published revelation of Plame's identity in Novak's column, Fitzgerald disclosed at a press conference on October 28, 2005, that it was Libby who leaked Plame's identity to Miller on July 8, 2003 -- well before the publication of Novak's column:

Valerie Wilson's cover was blown in July 2003. The first sign of that cover being blown was that Mr. Novak published a column on July 14th 2003. But Mr. Novak was not the first reporter to be told that Wilson's wife, Valerie Wilson, Ambassador [Joseph] Wilson's wife Valerie, worked at the CIA. Several other reporters were told. In fact, Mr. Libby was the first official known to have told a reporter when he talked to Judith Miller in June of 2003 about Valerie Wilson.

As Media Matters also noted, it is likely of little legal significance whether Libby disclosed Plame's name, as opposed to his disclosing the identity of Joseph Wilson's wife as a CIA employee, to a reporter.

From the edited trial transcript of Miller's January 30 testimony during Libby's trial, included in journalist Murray Waas' book The United States v. I. Lewis Libby (Union Square Press, June 2007):

Q: Did there come a time following the publication of Wilson's op-ed [July 6, 2003] that you met with Mr. Libby again?

A: Yes.

Q: When was that?

A: July 8th.

[...]

Q: Was there discussion at any time about Mr. Wilson's wife on this occasion?

A: Yes.

Q: Can you tell us what you recall about that?

A: Yes. Mr. Libby was discussing what he called two streams of reporting on uranium and on efforts by Iraq to acquire sensitive materials and components. He said the first stream was reports like that of Joe Wilson. Then he said the second stream, and at that point he said, once again, as an aside, that Mr. Wilson's wife worked at WINPAC.

Q: Can you tell us what WINPAC is?

A: Yes, WINPAC is, stands for Weapons Intelligence Non-Proliferation and Arms Control. It's a part of the CIA which is specifically focused on weapons of mass destruction.

As Colorado Media Matters has noted, Rosen and the Daily Sentinel previously have suggested that because Libby did not leak to Novak, he was not technically responsible for the leak. Rosen and the Daily Sentinel also have suggested that there was something untoward about Fitzgerald's investigation of Libby because Fitzgerald purportedly “knew” that Libby was not the original leaker.*

From the July 2 broadcast of 630 KHOW-AM's The Caplis & Silverman Show:

CAPLIS: First, she wasn't covert. That's why nobody's ever been charged with that. Second, it was Armitage. Now, as I've said before, Fitzgerald -- yeah, I believe he had either a political or a personal motivation, or both. You would have to, to continue this investigation after the question had already been answered. You knew early in this investigation who leaked her identity: Richard Armitage. Why continue beyond that if you're not going to charge him?

SILVERMAN: You know what, Dan? The jury convicted Scooter Libby of obstruction of justice, and Patrick Fitzgerald said his investigation was hampered by the lies of Scooter Libby, so I'll take both the jury and Patrick Fitzgerald at their word.

CAPLIS: And, and as I've said, the jury verdict must be respected, and, and, that's why I think the president prop -- struck the proper balance in commuting here rather than pardoning. Now, the appeal will go on, and let's see whether Scooter Libby wins the appeal or not. If you want to compare [former Denver City Attorney] Larry Manzanares, I think it's completely different. It's completely different because of the nature of the process. Here you had a prosecution that appears, I think, to many observers -- including several at The Washington Post -- to be politically motivated, personally motivated, a runaway train, just a wreck that should have ended when it was revealed Armitage, you know, was the one who outed Valerie Plame. So you had a process that is subject to great question. At the end of the day a man's convicted, he has felonies; you know, that, that's the end to an illustrious career in government service.

From the July 3 broadcast of Newsradio 850 KOA's The Mike Rosen Show:

ROSEN: The case shouldn't have even gone to a jury, as far as I'm concerned. You can argue that this was just a she, she-said kind of a confrontation with some reporters recollecting differently their conversations with Libby than Libby. As busy as somebody like this is, looking back on things he had said a year and two years ago, it's not surprising that recollections would differ. A, a, a huge mountain was made out of what turned out to be a molehill since national security was not undermined. Valerie Plame's identity was not first disclosed by Scooter Libby. It was disclosed by Richard Armitage. Everybody knows that now. And what's more, Valerie Plame's identity, her undercover status, which had long since passed, had already been compromised. It was generally known in Washington that Valerie Plame was working for the CIA and had, had a cover.

This item originally included the sentence: “In fact, Fitzgerald's October 2005 statement indicated that he knew Libby was the original leaker.” Subsequent to Fitzgerald's October 2005 press conference, media reports indicated that Armitage had leaked Plame's identity to Washington Post assistant managing editor Bob Woodward before Libby spoke with any journalists; at the time of Fitzgerald's October 2005 statement, Libby apparently was the first official known to Fitzgerald to have leaked Plame's identity to a reporter. The subsequent revelations about Armitage's apparent leak to Woodward, which preceded Libby's leaks to journalists, clarified Armitage's place in the chronology. Colorado Media Matters regrets the omission.