Cheney on the Stand
December 20, 2006
Mr. Vice President, you realize you’re under oath and that if you lie you can be prosecuted for perjury?
First, Mr. Vice President, as to your credibility, isn’t it true that just days before President Bush launched the Iraq War, you went on “Meet the Press” and said that Saddam Hussein had reconstituted his nuclear weapons, when, in actual fact, he had not, and when, in actual fact, the U.N. weapons inspectors had reported that he hadn’t even reconstituted his nuclear weapons program?
Mr. Vice President, do you know the defendant, Lewis Scooter Libby?
Mr. Vice President, did the defendant work for you?
Mr. Vice President, isn’t it true that you and the defendant outed Valerie Plame to send a signal to others who might dissent from your Iraq policy that they would pay a terrible price for doing so?
Mr. Vice President, did you or the defendant have the CIA fax over classified documents about Ambassador Joe Wilson, who had criticized the Administration for fabricating intelligence on Iraq’s phantom weapons of mass destruction?
Mr. Vice President, is this your handwriting on a copy of Ambassador Wilson’s New York Times op-ed, and doesn’t that word read “junket”?
Mr. Vice President, did you or did you not tell the defendant that Ambassador Wilson’s wife worked at the CIA in the Counterproliferation Division, as the indictment against Libby alleges?
Mr. Vice President, did you or did you not know that it is a felony crime to knowingly disclose the name of an undercover CIA operative?
Mr. Vice President, isn’t it true that you disclosed this information so that the defendant, pursuant to your wishes, would aim to discredit Ambassador Wilson in the press?
Mr. Vice President, isn’t it true that you and the defendant outed Valerie Plame to send a signal to others who might dissent from your Iraq policy that they would pay a terrible price for doing so?
Mr. Vice President, do you understand that in the United States no person is above the law?
No further questions, your honor.