Defiant Libby to face down CIA leak charges

Lewis Libby

Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the senior White House official charged over the CIA leak affair, is to appear in court on Friday, as investigators continue their inquiries into the activities of President George W. Bush's senior political adviser, Karl Rove.

An official said yesterday that Libby would appear in a federal court in Washington at 4.30am NZT Friday, where he would be formally charged, or arraigned.

He faces five charges: two of lying to investigators, two of lying to a grand jury and one of obstructing justice in relation to the leaking of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity.

Libby, 55, has made it clear he will plead not guilty. He was replaced yesterday by David Addington, a longtime aide to Vice-President Dick Cheney and his top legal adviser. Addington was among the authors of a White House memo justifying the torture of terrorism suspects.

Over the weekend Libby's lawyers said they would argue that, as a busy White House official, he could not be expected to recollect the full details of every conversation he had with reporters. They will deny he deliberately intended to lie to either investigators or members of the grand jury about what he had told reporters about Plame.

Last Saturday, as he resigned his position as Cheney's chief of staff, Libby declared: "I am confident that at the end of this process I will be completely and utterly exonerated."

The White House's greatest concern is now what may emerge during Libby's trial.

It has already been revealed special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald may wish to call Cheney as a witness, especially since the indictments revealed Libby had learned the identity and position of Plame from several sources, one of whom was the Vice-President.

The trial could also become a wider inquiry that examines the processes that went on in the White House as senior officials plotted to make the case to the public of the need to launch an invasion of Iraq.

Public opinion appears to be running against Bush. A poll published by the Washington Post found that almost half of the people asked (46 per cent) said the level of ethics and honesty in the federal Government had fallen since Bush became President, three times as many as those who said they had risen during his tenure.

- INDEPENDENT