Fitzgerald May Call Cheney as a Witness

After a drought of stories I specifically have been looking for, I keep finding curious items tonight. Fitzgerald seems to be raising the stakes a little higher in the Scooter Libby case and what is still an ongoing investigation of the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson. Editor & Publisher has the story from the Associated Press:

Vice President Dick Cheney could be called to testify in the perjury case against his former chief of staff, a special prosecutor said in a court filing Wednesday.

Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald suggested Cheney would be a logical government witness because he could authenticate notes he jotted on a July 6, 2003, New York Times opinion piece by a former U.S. ambassador critical of the Iraq war.

Fitzgerald said Cheney’s “state of mind” is “directly relevant” to whether I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the vice president’s former top aide, lied to FBI agents and a federal grand jury about how he learned about CIA officer Valerie Plame’s identity and what he subsequently told reporters.

(snip)

In a filing last week, Libby’s lawyers said Fitzgerald would not call Cheney as a witness and would have a hard time getting the vice president’s notes admitted into evidence.

“Contrary to defendant’s assertion, the government has not represented that it does not intend to call the vice president as a witness at trial,” Fitzgerald wrote. “To the best of government’s counsel’s recollection, the government has not commented on whether it intends to call the vice president as a witness.”

A quick check of the internet confirms that a number of news outlets are carrying the story. I won't comment at the moment since the timing of these things has been subject to uncertainty but filings like these carry weight (for some background, here's three recent recent posts on Donkey Path concerning the investigations: Armitage as possible witness, Rove, and Libby). There's real information in the above article and it's a sign that things are about to get interesting.