At the time of the Rove-Libby meeting in 2005 that was recalled by McClellan, Fitzgerald's investigation was zeroing in on Libby, who was indicted in October 2005 on five counts of perjury and obstruction of justice.
When Libby went on trial in 2007, Libby's attorney Wells told the jury that the White House had decided that Libby must be "sacrificed" to protect Rove whose criminal exposure in the leak was so great that the White House feared it could cost the Republicans badly in Election 2004.
In his opening statement, Wells told the jurors that "the person ... who was to be protected was Karl Rove ... President Bush's right-hand person in terms of political strategy. Karl Rove was the person most responsible for making sure the Republican Party stayed in office."
As the trial proceeded, however, Wells never presented evidence backing up his "scapegoat" claim. Libby was convicted on four of five counts and was sentenced to 30 months in prison. (Bush later commuted the sentence, sparing Libby jail time and dangling the possibility of a full pardon later.)
One of Libby's jurors, Denis Collins, said after the verdict that he and other jurors often asked "where's Rove?"
Renewed Interest
Now, McClellan's memoir is stoking renewed interest in the Bush administration's handling of the Plame leak. On Wednesday, Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Florida, called for McClellan to give sworn testimony to Congress.
Wexler described McClellan's admissions and allegations as "earth-shattering" regarding both the cover-up of the Plame leak and the administration's deceptive case for invading Iraq.
"Scott McClellan must now appear before the House Judiciary Committee under oath to tell Congress and the American people how President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, Scooter Libby, and White House officials deliberately orchestrated a massive propaganda campaign to sell the war in Iraq to the American people," Wexler said.
Anne Weismann, chief counsel for the government watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said McClellan's book reveals that a "conspiracy" of sorts did take place.
Weismann, whose group represents Valerie Plame and Joseph Wilson in a civil suit against White House officials, said the disclosures show why the case requires a discovery order from the courts.
"This was an outrageous conspiracy by top White House officials to attack and discredit a high-level CIA operative, which is exactly what we have said and the Wilsons have said," Weismann said about the case, which was dismissed by a lower court and is now on appeal.
An aide to Henry Waxman, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said the California Democrat continues to negotiate with Fitzgerald and Attorney General Michael Mukasey about obtaining documents that the special prosecutor uncovered during his investigation.
So far, Fitzgerald has turned over to Waxman's committee "FBI 302 reports" of interviews with CIA and State Department officials and other individuals involved in the leak, according to a letter the congressman sent to Attorney General Mukasey in December.
But Waxman added that "the White House has been blocking Mr. Fitzgerald from providing key documents to the Committee," including transcripts of Fitzgerald's interviews with Bush and Cheney about the leak.
Jason Leopold has launched a new Web site, The Public Record, at www.pubrecord.org
Originally published @ ConsortiumNews.com
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