VP appeared eager to blunt criticism

February 5, 2007
VP appeared eager to blunt criticism

Washington -- Vice President Dick Cheney's press officer, Cathie Martin, approached his chief of
staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, on Air Force Two on July 12, 2003, to ask how she should respond to journalists' questions about Joseph Wilson. Libby looked over one of the reporters' questions and told Martin: "Well, let me go talk to the boss and I'll be back."

On Libby's return, Martin testified in federal court last week, he brought a card with detailed
replies dictated by Cheney, including a highly partisan, incomplete summary of Wilson's
investigation into what was suspected to be Iraq's program for weapons of mass destruction.

Libby subsequently called a reporter, read him the statement, and said -- according to the
reporter -- he had heard that Wilson's investigation was instigated by his wife, an employee at
the CIA, later identified as Valerie Wilson. The reporter, Matthew Cooper of Time magazine, was
one of five people with whom Libby discussed Valerie Wilson's CIA status during those critical
weeks that summer.