October 11, 2008 5:03:53 AM CDT
(Newser) – President Bush has invoked an unprecedented executive privilege claim to bar FBI interviews with Dick Cheney from a congressional committee probing the leak that exposed Valerie Plame as a CIA agent, Newsweek reports. The Bush order argues that turning over the records of Cheney's grilling concerning the scandal would violate the president's right to confidential communication with his advisers.
"Creative is a good word to describe it," scoffed an executive privilege expert. "This is really an argument to protect the White House's own political interests and save it from embarrassment." Many questions still surround Cheney's actions relating to the dangerous exposure of the wife of Iraq war critic Joseph Wilson, but the Bush order will effectively prevent answers from becoming public.
Source Newsweek
Jun 9, 08 7:04 PM CDT Scott McClellan agreed today to testify about Dick Cheney's role in leaking the name of a CIA agent, the AP reports. In a hearing next week, House lawmakers are expected to ask him about his claim that Cheney and President Bush told him to "exonerate Scooter Libby" as White House spokesman. McClellan made the recent claim while hyping his new Washington tell-all memoir, What Happened. More »
Dec 4, 07 8:13 AM CST A House committee chairman investigating the Valerie Plame affair says the White House is blocking special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald from providing key documents from his investigation, the Washington Post reports. Fitzgerald agreed to hand over his findings before the Bush administration stepped in, says Henry Waxman, who has called on Michael Mukasey to overrule his new boss at the White House. More »
Jul 3, 07 5:58 AM CDT President Bush's dwindling popularity played a major role in his decision to commute the prison sentence for Scooter Libby, according to the Times. The ostracized president had little left to lose by saving Libby from prison and, in the words of one Republican observer, knew he was "going to get hammered no matter what." More »
Jun 15, 07 2:28 PM CDT President Bush will step in and save Scooter Libby for two reasons, argues Slate's John Dickerson. First, to repay Dick Cheney for not throwing Karl Rove under the bus. And second, pardoning Libby could help Bush regain Republican support by appeasing conservatives who opposed the CIA leak investigation from the get-go and are riled up by immigration reform. More »
George W. Bush • Dick Cheney • Valerie Plame • executive privilege • House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform • Plamegate
