Did Scooter Libby try to hide his meeting with Judith Miller?

Investigative reporter Murray Waas says that Libby tried to keep the special prosecutor in the dark about a June 2003 meeting he held with Miller.

Published October 11, 2005 11:40PM (EDT)

Investigative journalist Murray Waas is reporting that Lewis Libby, Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, did not tell the FBI or the grand jury investigating the Valerie Plame leak that he spoke to New York Times reporter Judith Miller about Plame in June 2003, before Plame's husband, Joseph Wilson, published an Op-Ed criticizing the White House's WMD rhetoric.

Waas -- whose report is based on an anonymous source "with firsthand knowledge of [Libby's] sworn testimony" -- writes that special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald first learned of the June 2003 Libby-Miller meeting only days ago, when Miller found notes indicating that such a meeting had taken place. "FBI agents interviewed Libby in October and November 2003, and the following year he voluntarily appeared twice before the grand jury, according to government records and interviews," Waas writes. "But he never disclosed anything to the FBI, prosecutors, or the grand jury about his June 23 conversation with Miller, sources say."

Was Libby trying to hide his June meeting with Miller from the special prosecutor? We can't say for sure; Libby's lawyers refuse to discuss his testimony. But if Waas is right, we're guessing that Fitzgerald -- who is universally described as a relentless prosecutor -- won't look kindly on Libby's omission when he plans for possible indictments in the coming weeks.


By Farhad Manjoo

Farhad Manjoo is a Salon staff writer and the author of True Enough: Learning to Live in a Post-Fact Society.

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