WASHINGTON, May 22 (UPI) -- While I. Lewis Libby is not charged with leaking classified information, Valerie Plame's CIA status is the key issue in the case, the U.S. prosecutor says.
Former administration official Libby is charged with grand jury perjury, obstruction and making false statements to investigators.
At a hearing last week on pretrial motions, Patrick Fitzgerald, special counsel in charge of the case, said that Libby had a motive to lie about how he learned that Valerie Plame worked for the CIA, The Washington Post reported.
The prosecutor says that Libby told the grand jury he was told about Plame by Tim Russert of NBC News. In fact, Fitzgerald said in court papers, Libby was told in 2003 that Plame was a classified CIA employee by his boss, Vice President Dick Cheney, by Undersecretary of State Marc Grossman and by a high-ranking CIA officer.
Fitzgerald suggested in his arguments that Libby tried to make his disclosures look like passing on gossip he did not know was true.
Libby, who was Cheney's chief of staff before his indictment, allegedly told reporters about Plame in an effort to discredit her husband, Ambassador Joseph Wilson, an Iraq war critic, the prosecution says.
