Did McClellan Accuse Bush of Lying to Federal Prosecutors?-BY Scott Horton

kpete

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Sat Nov-24-07 03:45 PM
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Did McClellan Accuse Bush of Lying to Federal Prosecutors?-BY Scott Horton

Edited on Sat Nov-24-07 03:51 PM by kpete

Did McClellan Accuse Bush of Lying to Federal Prosecutors?
And if he did, his decision to pardon Scooter Libby has to be seen in an entirely different light. Bush was using the pardon power to protect himself by sweeping the entire affair under the carpet.
BY Scott Horton
PUBLISHED November 24, 2007

............ there is every reason to scrutinize the McClellan statements very carefully, because they stack up very well against the information which emerged from Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald�s examination.

In fact, Fitzgerald interviewed President Bush on June 24, 2004, close to a year after Robert Novak betrayed the identity of Valerie Plame, the end result of a lengthy White House plot that involved Rove, Libby, Cheney. . . and President Bush. And on the date of that meeting, Scott McClellan appeared before the White House press corps and told them of the meeting without revealing any of its content. The substance of Bush�s statement to Fitzgerald was revealed only in July 2006 by Murray Waas:

President Bush told the special prosecutor in the CIA leak case that he directed (Cheney) to personally lead an effort to counter allegations made by former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV that his administration had misrepresented intelligence information to make the case to go to war with Iraq, according to people familiar with the president�s interview.

Bush also told federal prosecutors � that he had directed Cheney, as part of that broader effort, to disclose highly classified intelligence information that would not only defend his administration but also discredit Wilson, the sources said.

But Bush told investigators that he was unaware that Cheney had directed (Libby) to covertly leak the classified information to the media instead of releasing it to the public after undergoing the formal governmental declassification processes.

Bush also said during his interview with prosecutors that he had never directed anyone to disclose the identity of then-covert CIA officer Valerie Plame, Wilson�s wife. Bush said he had no information that Cheney had disclosed Plame�s identity or directed anyone else to do so.

The McClellan quote suggests very strongly that the final statement, which would have been the question that Fitzgerald put to Bush, was false. If Bush�s statement was a conscious effort to mislead a federal prosecutor on questions focal to his inquiry, this is a very big deal. Pensito Review puts the matter this way:

In fact, lying to the feds is a criminal act, even when the person being interviewed is not under oath.

.....................

The criminality of lying to investigators could come into play now if McClellan�s version of what Bush�s role in the apparent conspiracy differs from what Bush told U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald during an Oval Office �interview� � not under oath � on the morning of June 24, 2004, 11 months after Novak betrayed Agent Wilson�s identity.

http://harpers.org/archive/2007/11/hbc-90001739