WASHINGTON — Sometimes, a witness says he just can't remember. It may well be a convenient memory lapse, but it is hard to prove such forgetfulness is a crime.
I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, however, is accused of something far more elaborate. Special Prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald alleges that Libby made up a false story to deceive investigators and then told the lie under oath to the grand jury.
Telling a false story to a federal prosecutor who knows the facts is a sure ticket to an indictment, legal experts said Friday. And, they said, Fitzgerald appears to have built a strong case.
"That's unacceptable. You can't lie, make up conversations that didn't happen and expect you are not going to be charged with a crime," said George Washington University law professor Stephen A. Saltzburg.
Fitzgerald has been investigating whether anyone in the administration violated federal law by leaking the identity of CIA agent Valerie Plame. Many have suggested that her identity was disclosed in retribution against her husband, former U.S. envoy Joseph C. Wilson IV, a critic of the Bush administration's Iraq invasion.
Libby was indicted on one count of obstruction of justice, two counts of making false statements to FBI agents and two counts of perjury in connection with his grand jury testimony.
According to the indictment, Libby told investigators that he first learned from reporters in July 2003 that Plame worked for the CIA. In fact, Libby had talked that June with officials at the CIA and the State Department and with Vice President Dick Cheney about Plame and her employment at the CIA, according to the indictment.
On July 6, Wilson wrote an op-ed piece in the New York Times that cast doubt on President Bush's statement that Iraq may have purchased yellowcake uranium from Niger.
In the next few days, Libby spoke with NBC's Tim Russert, Time magazine's Matt Cooper and New York Times reporter Judith Miller. The indictment says all three contradicted Libby's version of their separate conversations with him.
Russert told the grand jury that he and Libby did not discuss Wilson's wife when they spoke on July 10 or July 11 and that he did not learn Plame's name until it was published in a column by Robert Novak on July 14.
