Notes contradict Libby testimony
Report: Cheney told him about CIA agent
Vice President Dick Cheney first told his chief of staff about a CIA agent who is at the heart of a leak investigation weeks before the covert operative's name and occupation appeared in a syndicated column, The New York Times reported today.
The paper, citing lawyers involved in the case, said notes of the June 12, 2003, conversation between Cheney and I. Lewis ''Scooter" Libby appear to contradict Libby's testimony to a federal grand jury that he first learned about the agent from journalists.
The notes, which the Times said had been taken by Libby, also placed Cheney in the effort by the Bush administration to learn about Joseph Wilson IV, a critic of the White House's handling of intelligence regarding Iraq's nuclear weapons program.
The White House used weapons of mass destruction as a justification to invade Iraq.
The notes do not suggest that Cheney or Libby knew the agent, Valerie Plame, was undercover.
Libby and Cheney had clearance to discuss a CIA officer, but an effort by Libby to hide his conversation with Cheney from investigators could be considered an illegal effort to impede special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald's inquiry, the Times said.
The paper said neither the White House nor Libby's lawyer, Joseph Tate, would comment on Libby's legal status.
