Just in time for the new week...Addington's Role In Cheney's Office Draws Fresh Attention
By Murray Waas and Paul Singer
© National Journal Group Inc.
Sunday, Oct. 30, 2005On the morning of July 8, 2003,
I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, then-chief of staff to
Vice President Cheney, had a two-hour meeting with New York Times reporter
Judith Miller at which Libby gave information to Miller in an attempt to discredit former ambassador and Bush administration critic
Joseph Wilson.
When Libby returned to the White House, he immediately sought out
David Addington, the vice president's counsel, according to court records and interviews. During their breakfast at the St. Regis Hotel, Libby had promised Miller he would try to find out more about Wilson, and Wilson's wife, CIA officer
Valerie Plame. As the former general counsel to the CIA and counsel to the House Intelligence Committee, Addington was the right man for Libby to see.
...
Addington is currently considered the leading candidate to succeed Libby as the chief of staff to a weakened but still powerful Cheney. But Addington's own role in the Plame matter is emerging just as the vice president considers whether to name him as his next chief of staff.
There is no evidence that Addington has done anything outside the law, or that Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has regarded him as anything other than a witness during the two-year probe that led to Libby's indictment. There is also no evidence that Addington was cognizant that Libby had allegedly leaked classified information on Plame to the media.
But Addington was deeply immersed in the White House damage-control campaign to deflect criticism that the Bush administration misrepresented intelligence information to make the case to go to war with Iraq, according to administration and congressional sources.
And there's more, much more.