Libby says Bush OK'd intel disclosure

Lewis Libby (photo: Boston Globe)

President Bush authorized the disclosure of sensitive intelligence information about Iraq, according to court papers filed by former vice presidential aide Lewis Libby in the CIA leak case.

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Libby said in grand jury testimony prior to his indictment that the president authorized Vice President Cheney to pass on information to reporters about prewar intelligence on Iraq, Reuters reported.

That led, according to the documents, to a July 8, 2003, conversation between Libby and New York Times reporter Judith Miller.

The filing gave no indication that Bush or Cheney gave permission to Libby to reveal Valerie Plame's CIA identity.

The papers by Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald stated Libby's participation in the conversation with Miller "occurred only after the vice president advised defendant that the president specifically had authorized defendant to disclose certain information in the National Intelligence Estimate."

Libby, the papers said, "testified that the circumstances of his conversation with reporter Miller – getting approval from the president through the vice president to discuss material that would be classified but for that approval – were unique in his recollection."

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