Cheney Might Testify in Libby Case

Vice President Dick Cheney may be called as a government witness in the perjury and obstruction case against his former chief of staff, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, a special prosecutor indicated Wednesday.

Then again, he may not.

In a court filing, Patrick J. Fitzgerald held open the possibility that during Libby’s trial, set for January, he might ask Cheney to authenticate the handwritten notations in the margins of a July 2003 newspaper column critical of the Bush administration’s decision to go to war in Iraq.

The column, published July 6, 2003, in the New York Times, was written by Joseph C. Wilson IV, the husband of then CIA operative Valerie Plame. Cheney’s notations, which refer to Plame without identifying her by name, are evidence that the vice president -- and his top aide -- were focused on Wilson and intent on responding to his claims that the administration twisted prewar intelligence, Fitzgerald has said.

Plame’s identity as a CIA official was revealed eight days later in an article by columnist Robert Novak. The disclosure led to the nearly three-year investigation into whether administration officials illegally identified a covert agent. Fitzgerald is continuing to study possible charges against senior Bush advisor Karl Rove.

Fitzgerald said in the court filing Wednesday that the annotated article “could be authenticated through the testimony of the vice president.” He also said the document could be admitted into evidence in other ways, without Cheney’s testimony.

“Contrary to defendant’s assertion, the government has not represented that it does not intend to call the vice president as a witness at trial,” the prosecutor said in a footnote.

The court filing dealt mostly with an ongoing fight over access to government documents, unrelated to Cheney, that Libby’s lawyers have said are crucial to their client getting a fair trial.