Thread: Judge orders release of Cheney interview with FBI

Judge orders release of Cheney interview with FBI

Updated 4m ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge ruled Thursday that the FBI must publicly reveal much of its interview with former vice president Dick Cheney during the investigation into who leaked the identity of a CIA operative.


The FBI interviewed Cheney in June 2004 as it was investigating the leak of Valerie Plame's identity after her husband publicly criticized the Bush administration. Both the Bush and Obama administrations said they wanted to keep the interview confidential because future presidents and vice presidents may not cooperate with criminal investigations if they know what they say could became public.

But U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan ruled there was no justification to withhold the entire 67 pages of records documenting the interview since the Plame leak investigation has concluded. He said that limited parts could be withheld to protect national security or personal privacy.

Government attorneys told Sullivan in a hearing this summer that if he ordered the documents released, they would appeal and seek to withhold the documents until the matter is resolved.

The Justice Department declined to comment on the ruling Thursday.

Plame's identity was leaked to news organizations after her husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson, criticized the Bush administration's prewar intelligence on Iraq in 2003.

The leak touched off a lengthy inquiry that led to Cheney's former top aide, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, being convicted on charges of obstruction of justice and lying to investigators. During his trial, jurors found that Libby lied to the FBI and a grand jury about his conversations with reporters. Then-president George W. Bush commuted Libby's sentence, and Libby never served prison time.

Libby was the only person charged in the case. No one was charged with leaking Wilson's name.

Libby told the FBI in 2003 that it was possible that Cheney ordered him to reveal Plame's identity to reporters. The prosecutor in that case, special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, said in his closing remarks at Libby's trial that there was a "cloud" over Cheney's role in the case.

In July 2008, the liberal watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the Justice Department seeking records related to Cheney's interview in the investigation. The Justice Department declined to turn over the records, and CREW filed a lawsuit in August arguing that the public has a right to know the role that Cheney played in the leak and why he was not prosecuted.

The Justice Department said the documents were exempt since they were part of a law enforcement matter and their release could interfere with future cases. They said presidents and vice presidents may not cooperate if they know what they say could become available to their political opponents and late-night comics like those on The Daily Show, who would ridicule them.

They also said the interview contained classified material and that presidential communications were shielded to allow candor with the president and his advisers.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington ... ease_N.htm

Bush would have been a lot better off without Cheney, Rumsfeld or Wolfowitz. And throw in Paulson as well.

If you got nothing to hide what is the problem?