Libby pleads not guilty as CIA leak case enters the courtroom

US VICE President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff yesterday pleaded not guilty in the CIA leak scandal, marking the start of what could be a long road to a trial in which top Bush officials could be summoned to testify.

Once the charges were read and US District Judge Reggie Walton asked for his response, Lewis ‘Scooter’ Libby said: “With respect, your honour, I plead not guilty.”

Mr Libby, who is recovering from a foot injury, leaned his crutches against a podium from which lawyers normally question witnesses or address the court.

The indictment has provided more fuel to the political debate over the White House’s possible misuse of pre-war intelligence on Iraq and the failure by Senate Republicans to promptly investigate the issue.

It has also put George Bush’s administration on the defensive at a time when the president’s popularity rating is at an all-time low after a week in which his supreme court nominee was forced by conservatives to withdraw, casualties in Iraq passed the 2,000 mark and a question mark hung over whether his closest political adviser, Karl Rove, will be indicted in the case.

Mr Libby bolstered his defence team this week with two well-known criminal trial lawyers, Ted Wells and William Jeffress, both with good acquittal records.

Mr Libby was charged with lying to investigators and the grand jury about leaking the identity of CIA agent Valerie Plame.

Her name was published by conservative columnist Robert Novak after her husband Joseph Wilson accused the Bush administration of twisting intelligence in the run-up to the war to exaggerate the Iraqi threat.

The indictment says Mr Libby got information about Ms Plame’s identity in June of 2003 from Mr Cheney, the State Department and the CIA, then spread it to reporters Judith Miller and Matt Cooper.

Mr Libby told FBI agents and a federal grand jury that his information had come from NBC reporter Tim Russert, who says he and Mr Libby never discussed Mr Wilson or his wife.

Libby attorney Joseph Tate said inconsistencies in recollections among people regarding long-ago events should not be charged as crimes.

Mr Libby is accused of one count of obstruction of justice, two counts of lying to FBI agents and two counts of perjury before a federal grand jury.