Word: plame
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...innocence throughout his trial, claiming that any false statements he had made to investigators resulted from bad memory, not deception. But Libby had reason to lie: his job was at stake, and his boss's was on the line too. Bush had declared that anyone involved in leaking Plame's identity would be fired. Cheney had personally assured Bush early on that his aide wasn't involved, even persuading the President to exonerate Libby publicly through a spokesman. Special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, who prosecuted the case, said Libby's obstruction had prevented investigators from uncovering the truth about Cheney...
...dubbed, tested the trust between the two men like nothing before. Bush had promised high ethical standards after the Clinton era and a "fresh start after a season of cynicism," a veiled reference to Clinton's troubles with truth-telling under oath in the Monica Lewinsky scandal. In the Plame investigation, a prosecutor with broad authority jarred Bush's White House by issuing deposition orders and demands for documents. Bush himself was interviewed by Fitzgerald on June 24, 2004, as was Cheney some four months later...
...been an article of faith among Cheney's critics that the Vice President wanted a pardon for Libby because Libby had taken the fall for him in the Fitzgerald probe. In his grand-jury testimony reviewed by TIME, Libby denied three times that Cheney had directed him to leak Plame's CIA identity in mid-2003. Though his recollection of other events in the same time frame was lucid and detailed, on at least 20 occasions, Libby could not recall details of his talks with Cheney about Plame's place of employment or questions the Vice President raised privately about...
...Cheney replied that the conviction for obstruction of justice was based on what amounted to a case of "he said, he said," a disagreement between his longtime aide and a journalist. Libby had told the grand jury he remembered first hearing Plame's name from NBC's Tim Russert. But notes obtained by prosecutors indicated that Cheney had been the first to identify her to Libby. And Russert denied at Libby's trial that he had mentioned Plame to the defendant. The jury sided with Russert. Cheney, however, considered it an open question. "Who do you believe, Scooter or Russert...
...Meanwhile, Bush was running his own traps. He called Jim Sharp, his personal attorney in the Plame case, who had been present when he was interviewed by Fitzgerald in 2004. Sharp was known in Washington as one of the best lawyers nobody knew. A savvy raconteur from Oklahoma who had represented a long list of colorful clients - from Nixon pal Charles G. (Bebe) Rebozo to Sammy Sosa - Sharp had worked quietly for the President for a while before anyone even knew about it. In the meantime, the two men had become friends, spending hours chatting over cigars and near beer...