Former President George W. Bush, whose administration appointed a special counsel to investigate the CIA leak affair, says he “never understood” why prosecutors pressed the case after learning the identity of the leaker early in the course of the investigation.
“I never understood why the case went forward,” Bush told a small group of conservative reporters and editors in Washington Friday. “I never understood that. My view is that it would be interesting to get an explanation as to why the case went forward. I don’t understand it.”
In late 2003, Justice Department prosecutors knew that Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage originally leaked the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame to columnist Robert Novak. Yet they went ahead with the appointment of special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald in December of that year. Fitzgerald then spent years on the investigation, focusing on whether Bush administration officials told the truth in interviews and grand jury testimony.
Armitage, who early on told prosecutors about his role in the matter, did not publicly admit to being the leaker until nearly three years later. On Friday, Bush was asked whether Armitage or Armitage’s boss, Secretary of State Colin Powell, ever personally told Bush that Armitage was the leaker. “The answer is no,” Bush said.
Fitzgerald’s investigation reached to the highest levels of the Bush administration. The president ordered his staff to cooperate with Fitzgerald, and the prosecutor interviewed Bush himself, as well as Vice President Dick Cheney. Top Bush aide Karl Rove appeared five times before Fitzgerald’s grand jury before being told he would not be charged. Lewis Libby, Cheney’s chief of staff, was charged with perjury and obstruction of justice and convicted in March 2007.
Libby was sentenced to 30 months in prison and a fine of $250,000. In July 2007, Bush commuted Libby’s jail term but let the jury’s verdict stand. In his new memoir, Decision Points, Bush writes that the question of whether to grant Libby a full pardon before leaving office in January 2009 was “the most emotional personnel decision I had to make” during eight years in office.
Bush ultimately chose not to pardon Libby. Asked Friday to describe his thinking as he made the decision, Bush offered few details. “I had lawyers review the case and I let the jury verdict stand,” Bush said. “I just didn’t feel comfortable with making the decision to pardon him.”
Bush was more expansive in describing the tension with Cheney over the issue. Cheney was a staunch advocate of pardoning Libby, and as the administration’s days in office ran out pushed hard on his former aide’s behalf.
“This was a very personal issue because I admire Dick Cheney a lot, and consider him a friend, and he was very upset,” Bush explained. “Really upset. And I understood. It was a chilly meeting when I informed him [that there would be no pardon].”
“You thought your relationship was severed?”
“I thought it could be,” Bush answered. “I really did. I mean, it was chilly. As I say, he’s a dear friend, still. I didn’t know. I mean, there wasn’t a lot of discussion once I made up my mind. It was a sad moment.”
