Cheney, Wilson, Novak and Perjury

Sounds like a law firm, but the AP has an article up about a summary of an FBI interview with VP Dick Cheney back in 2004. They were trying to figure out who leaked Valerie Plame's name to columnist Robert Novak. Lying under oath to a federal agent is a crime, and to avoid it, deponents are advised to say they "don't remember" rather than flatly deny something. And the AP article takes Cheney to task for this:

Cheney's denials that he talked about Plame are among the few things in the lengthy interview with the FBI that Cheney appeared certain about. He repeatedly said he could not recall key events. Among them, he said he did not recall discussing Wilson's wife with Libby before her CIA employment was publicly revealed by conservative columnist Robert Novak in mid-July 2003.

Problem is, we now know that Cheney's answers were mostly truthful: he was asked if he mentioned Valerie Plame's name to Karl Rove. He answered that he didn't remember mentioning her name to Rove. In fact, it now seems certain that he did not mention her name to Rove. The AP article sounds skeptical; how could Cheney not remember these key points? Well, the obvious answer to that is that we now know that these things never happened. Cheney never mentioned Plame's name to Rove, so how could he be expected to "remember" something that never happened?

The AP article never mentions Richard Armitage, the man who was the real source for Novak's article. It was Armitage who told Novak that Plame was a CIA analyst; not "Scooter" Libby, not Cheney and not Rove.

Cheney did the right thing by saying he did not remember giving Plame's name to Rove; after all, if Rove had told the FBI that Cheney did in fact give him Plame's name, and the prosecutor decided to believe Rove, because it moved the ball down the field, then Cheney could be charged with perjury, even though he told the truth.

Ridiculous article that conceals as much as it reveals.

Here's a link to the CNN story in which Armitage admits all.