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Cheney on Plame Leak: I Can't Recall
VP comes up blank on specifics in newly released interview
By Nick McMaster
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Posted Oct 30, 09 6:02 PM CDT
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(Newser)
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After years of effort by the Bush and Obama administrations to keep documents related to the CIA leak case secret, redacted portions of the special prosecutor’s 2004 interview with Dick Cheney released today show plenty of nothing. The then-VP apparently suffered acute memory loss: Cheney told Patrick Fitzgerald he couldn't recall when he learned Valerie Plame was a CIA agent, or telling chief of staff Scooter Libby about it, or telling Libby to leak the info to reporters.
Libby, who was convicted of perjury for his role in the scandal, had used similar language, the Washington Post notes. And Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, the group that sued for the documents' release, hit the roof. "The transcript reveals that Mr. Cheney—generally credited with razor sharp intellect and recall—demonstrated an astonishing inability to recollect even simple facts," CREW said in a statement.