Cheney linked to probe into leak of CIA agent’s identity

US Vice-President Dick Cheney was yesterday directly linked to a federal investigation into the leaking of a CIA agent’s identity.

The New York Times reported that notes in the hand of a federal prosecutor suggest the chief of staff to Mr Cheney first heard of the covert CIA officer central to a leak investigation from Mr Cheney himself.

The newspaper said notes of a previously undisclosed June 12, 2003 conversation between Lewis 'Scooter' Libby and Mr Cheney appear to differ from Mr Libby's grand jury testimony that he first heard of Valerie Plame from journalists.

The newspaper identified its sources in the story only as lawyers who are involved in the case.

"This is a question relating to an ongoing investigation and we're not having any further comment on the investigation while it's ongoing," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said.

Pressed about Mr Cheney's knowledge about the CIA officer, Mr McClellan said: "I think you're prejudging things and speculating."

Mr Libby has emerged at the centre of special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald's criminal investigation in recent weeks because of the Cheney aide's conversations about Ms Plame with Times reporter Judith Miller.

Ms Miller said Mr Libby spoke to her about Ms Plame and her husband, Bush administration critic Joseph Wilson, on three occasions, although not necessarily by name and without indicating he knew she was undercover.

Mr Libby's notes show that Mr Cheney knew Ms Plame worked at the CIA more than a month before her identity was publicly exposed by columnist Robert Novak.

At the time of the Cheney-Libby conversation, Mr Wilson had been referred to but not by name in the New York Times and on the morning of June 12, 2003 on the front page of The Washington Post.

The notes contain no suggestion that Mr Cheney or Mr Libby knew at the time of their conversation of Ms Plame's undercover status or that her identity was classified, the paper said.

Disclosing the identity of a covert CIA agent can be a crime, but only if the person who discloses it knows the agent is classified as working undercover.

The Times quoted lawyers involved in the case as saying they had no indication Mr Fitzgerald was considering charging Mr Cheney with a crime.

But the paper said any efforts by Mr Libby to steer investigators away from his conversation with Mr Cheney might be viewed by a prosecutor as attempt to impede the inquiry, which could be a crime.

Mr Fitzgerald is expected to decide this week whether to seek criminal indictments in the case. Lawyers involved in the case have said Mr Libby and Karl Rove, President George W Bush's senior adviser, both face the possibility of indictment.

Mr Fitzgerald questioned Mr Cheney more than a year ago, but it is not known what the vice president told the prosecutor.

In September 2003, Mr Cheney told NBC he did not know Mr Wilson or who sent him on a trip to Niger in 2002 to check into intelligence that Iraq may have been seeking to buy uranium there.