Bush's ex-spokesman rebuts Libby

BBC

Former White House spokesman Ari Fleischer has told a court that a key former aide to the vice-president revealed secret information to him.
Mr Fleischer said Lewis Libby told him on 7 July 2003 that Valerie Plame, the wife of administration critic Joseph Wilson, worked for the CIA.

Mr Libby is on trial, charged with lying to investigators trying to find out who leaked the secret information.

Mr Libby denies the charges, and no-one was ever charged with the leak itself.

Mr Fleischer was a prosecution witness at the high-profile trial, becoming the fourth current or former official to contradict Mr Libby's account of how and when he learned Ms Plame worked for the CIA.

It is a crime to knowingly reveal the identity of an undercover CIA agent.

Mr Fleischer said Mr Libby told him about Ms Plame at lunch a day after her husband published an article accusing the Bush administration of misusing intelligence in the run-up to the war against Iraq.

Mr Libby added that the information was "hush-hush", Mr Fleischer testified.

If found guilty, Lewis "Scooter" Libby - who was Vice-President Dick Cheney's chief of staff - could face up to 30 years in jail.