McClellan To Testify on CIA Leak
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
WASHINGTON — President Bush’s former spokesman, Scott McClellan, will testify before a House committee next week about whether Vice President Cheney ordered him to make misleading public statements about the leaking of CIA agent Valerie Plame’s identity.
Mr. McClellan will testify publicly and under oath before the House Judiciary Committee on June 20 about the White House’s role in the leak and its response, his attorneys, Michael and Jane Tigar, said yesterday.
In his new book, “What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception,” Mr. McClellan said he was misled by others, possibly including Mr. Cheney, about the role of I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby in the leak. Mr. McClellan has said publicly that Messrs. Bush and Cheney “directed me to go out there and exonerate Scooter Libby.”
The statements prompted the House Judiciary Committee chairman, John Conyers, a Democrat of Michigan, to invite Mr. McClellan to the hearing “concerning reported attempts to cover up the involvement of White House officials in the leak of” Ms. Plame’s identity.
Ms. Plame’s CIA identity was leaked to the news media by several top Bush administration officials in 2003, including Libby and a former top White House political adviser, Karl Rove. Last July, Mr. Bush commuted Libby’s 2 1/2-year sentence, sparing him from serving any prison time after being convicted of perjury, obstructing justice and lying to the FBI.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chairman, Henry Waxman, a Democrat of California, also is seeking more FBI documents about the leak in part because of Mr. McClellan’s description of the way he was instructed to respond to questions on the matter.
At Libby’s trial, witnesses testified that Mr. Cheney, Libby, and other Bush administration officials mounted a campaign to counter criticism of the Iraq war by Ms. Plame’s husband, Joseph Wilson. Mr. Cheney’s spokeswoman, Cathie Martin, testified that Mr. Cheney personally wrote out statements and talking points for Libby and other aides to give to reporters to rebut Mr. Wilson’s allegations.
