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Fitzgerald Receives 250 Pages of Cheney Office E-mails

At today's hearing in the Scooter Libby case, Patrick Fitzgerald told the defense the White House recently had turned over to his office 250 pages of e-mails from Dick Cheney's office.

Is Cheney in trouble? Jason Leopold reports:

The emails are said to be explosive, and may prove that Cheney played an active role in the effort to discredit Plame Wilson's husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, a vocal critic of the Bush administration's prewar Iraq intelligence, sources close to the investigation said.

Sources close to the probe said the White House "discovered" the emails two weeks ago and turned them over to Fitzgerald last week. The sources added that the emails could prove that Cheney lied to FBI investigators when he was interviewed about the leak in early 2004. Cheney said that he was unaware of any effort to discredit Wilson or unmask his wife's undercover status to reporters.

As to specifics, Leopold writes:

Cheney said he was unaware that Ambassador Wilson was chosen to travel to Niger to look into the uranium claims, and that he never saw a report Wilson had given a CIA analyst upon his return which stated that the Niger claims were untrue. He said the CIA never told him about Wilson's trip.

However, the emails say otherwise, and will show that the vice president spearheaded an effort in March 2003 to attack Wilson's credibility and used the CIA to dig up information on the former ambassador that could be used against him, sources said.

Some of the emails that were turned over to Fitzgerald contained references to Plame Wilson's identity and CIA status, and developments related to the inability of ground forces to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq after the start of the war in March 2003.

I have long thought the operative date for Cheney and his staff's decision to go after Joseph Wilson was March, 2003. I've also wondered whether Cheney told the truth to investigators when he was interviewed, and whether Cheney isn't Fitzgerald's top target.

If he denied being part of the White House Iraq Group meetings at which discussions were held as to how to respond to Wilson's public statements; if he didnt' tell investigators or Fitz that he learned of Wilson's wife's employment from the CIA at least by June 12 when he told Libby -- then Cheney is in trouble.

Fitz will take this investigation as high as it goes, including to Cheney. Hopefully, he'll get there before the 2008 elections.

[Graphic created exclusively for TalkLeft by CL.]

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  • Re: Fitzgerald Receives 250 Pages of Cheney Office (none / 0) (#1)
    by squeaky on Fri Feb 24, 2006 at 09:48:09 PM EST
    TL-you are too good. I remember your point about March 03 and have been hoping that something ties him to it. Guess it was all those missing emails that somehow just turned up. Looks like his goose is cooked. That until he demands all the PDB's for his trial.... executive privilege and end of case. What creeps these guys are. At the very least they will be seen for the traitors that they are. The downside is that when Cheney has to step down we have Condi as VP, or even worse Jeb.

    This throws a new light on Cheney's remarks to Fox. He had to have known this was about to be handed over to Fitzgerald, so he's laying out his alibi "Well, the very fact I revealed the info means I declassified it, so therefore there was no crime involved in any way." I keep dreaming of RICO being applied to these guys, video of 20 of them frog-marched out of the White House.

    Wow - That is good news. I didn't hear anything about this earlier this evening. Fitzgerald has known this for a week? Peeling back the layers of the onion. This will have an effect on the mid-terms and the '08 elections. Even though, we've known that Cheney had to have been involved - I'm stunned.

    Are these the emails that Fitz thought might have been destroyed? Funny how they just turned up, isn't it?

    To Anonymous: And conversely, the Leopold article may not be bogus.

    Re: Fitzgerald Receives 250 Pages of Cheney Office (none / 0) (#6)
    by anon55 on Sat Feb 25, 2006 at 12:30:45 AM EST
    To Libby: The operative word was "may." Should you choose to go to the link you will have a clearer understanding. It's called having an open mind. :-)

    Re: Fitzgerald Receives 250 Pages of Cheney Office (none / 0) (#7)
    by mjvpi on Sat Feb 25, 2006 at 07:14:28 AM EST
    The way that this is going, I would give my kingdom to see missing emails 251 thru 262......

    hope bush and dick do real time at some Government prison with Osama Bin Laden, now that would be justice. we have a hell of a lot of enemies inside this nation and dick and bush are two. Port selling anyone? if you know what i mean?

    This is the AP article with the mention of the 250 e-mails. It's located at the bottom of the article. BTW Anon., are you the same Anon. that basically called FireDogLake babbling liars over at AnonymousLiberal? Just asking... 250 E-mail AP article As an aside, the next time I hear a Republican reference H. Clinton's billing records, I will kindly remind them of this little incident.

    Re: Fitzgerald Receives 250 Pages of Cheney Office (none / 0) (#10)
    by squeaky on Sat Feb 25, 2006 at 09:20:01 AM EST
    And we have a second act to look forward to:
        Sources close to the case said that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales withheld numerous emails from Fitzgerald's probe citing "executive privilege" and "national security" concerns. These sources said that as of Friday there are still some emails that have not been turned over to Fitzgerald because they contain classified information in addition to references about the Wilsons.
    National Security has become a convenient synonym for cover up. Abu Gonzales is not working for Americans as he is mandated to do. We are picking up the tab for WH criminal defense. The AG should resign or be impeached. Biz as usual.

    Uh-huh. You know, I'm only a computer engineering student, but something seems strangely improbable about a select few emails mysteriously vanishing and then reappearing with no human intervention. Good thing they say they bring honor and dignity to the White House, otherwise you might suspect them of lying.

    To be accurate, I believe it's 250 pages of emails. [Ed. thanks, I fixed it.]

    Re: Fitzgerald Receives 250 Pages of Cheney Office (none / 0) (#13)
    by anon55 on Sat Feb 25, 2006 at 01:27:17 PM EST
    Posted by Gurrl February 25, 2006 10:09 AM BTW Anon., are you the same Anon. that basically called FireDogLake babbling liars over at AnonymousLiberal? Just asking... No, I am not. I personally like FDL and have no criticism of them, but thanks for asking.

    What is the time frame for when these emails were given to Fitz? Was it before or after the hunting accident?... perhaps at the point Big Time became damaged goods? Just curious.

    Re: Fitzgerald Receives 250 Pages of Cheney Office (none / 0) (#15)
    by kdog on Sun Feb 26, 2006 at 06:59:12 AM EST
    Forensic computer experts had a hard time retrieving the emails after the hard drive was peppered with buckshot.

    Cheney is not Martha Stewart. While I'd love to believe in Mr. FitzGerald's integrity, I'll believe a Dick Cheney indictment when I see it. OTOH, the timing seems to be consistent with Fudd-gate... Dick could very well have shown up the President once too often. Still I'll believe it when I see it.