Washington – Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer testified Monday he first heard that a prominent war critic’s wife worked at the CIA from vice-presidential aide Lewis “Scooter” Libby.
Fleischer said Libby told him about Valerie Plame’s job at the CIA over lunch in the White House mess hall July 7, 2003. But Libby has told investigators he thought he first learned about Plame on July 10 from NBC reporter Tim Russert.
Four other government witnesses also have said they discussed Plame with Libby before July 10, and the discrepancy between those accounts and what Libby told the FBI and a grand jury are a major component of the perjury and obstruction-of- justice charges against Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff.
Libby now says his memory failed him when he spoke to Russert.
Fleischer, President Bush’s chief spokesman from 2001 through mid- 2003, testified under an immunity agreement with prosecutors.
He said he sought the deal after reading about the investigation and worrying, “Oh, my God. Did I somehow play a role in outing a CIA operative?”
He insisted he believed throughout that the information was not classified.
Fleischer said his lunch with Libby was their first ever. They discussed the controversy raging over criticism by Plame’s husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, of Bush’s State of the Union address in January 2003.
Libby said Wilson’s wife worked at the CIA in the counterproliferation division, Fleischer testified. “I believe he mentioned her name and said something like, ‘This is hush-hush; this on the Q.T. Not very many people know this,”‘ Fleischer said.
He did not think the information was classified, however, because whenever he was told or given classified information, “people would always say, ‘This is classified. You cannot use it.”‘
