By R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 19, 2006; A08

Lawyers for I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the indicted former chief of staff to Vice President Cheney, want access to many Bush administration documents they say will demonstrate that an undercover CIA officer played a "peripheral role" in the government's debate over prewar intelligence and that Libby had no motive to lie about her, according to new court filings.

In documents filed late Friday, Libby's attorneys cast a wide net for information that they said would help demonstrate that Libby did not discuss the identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame as part of a supposed administration effort to besmirch her husband, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV.

They wrote that they anticipated the trial would showcase testimony by a Who's Who of senior administration officials involved in the Iraq policymaking at the heart of the CIA leak investigation, including three top officials at the State Department who the lawyers asserted played key roles in the unraveling of Plame's covert CIA position. Those officials include then-Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and his deputy secretary, Richard Armitage, and undersecretary for political affairs, Marc Grossman.

The lawyers argued that if press reports are correct that some reporters first learned of Plame's CIA connections from Armitage, then "the State Department (and certainly not Mr. Libby) bears responsibility for the 'leak' that led to the public disclosure" of Plame's CIA identity.

Libby was indicted Oct. 28 on criminal charges of perjury, obstruction of justice and lying to the FBI about how he learned of Plame's employment and what he told reporters about her. He was not, however, charged with leaking the information to the reporter who first published it, columnist Robert D. Novak.

Libby's lawyers have asserted that inaccurate statements made by him are the result of mistakes or forgetfulness caused by the long hours he put in every day dealing with the nation's most critical national security issues.

The charges against Libby resulted from an investigation -- still underway -- by Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald into whether administration officials knowingly leaked Plame's identity to Novak and other reporters after Wilson publicly contended that the administration had twisted intelligence when it asserted that Iraq had attempted to buy nuclear weapons material from Niger. Wilson's report was embarrassing because senior administration officials -- including President Bush -- had cited the alleged attempted purchase as one of the justifications for an invasion of Iraq.

In Friday's filing, Libby's lawyers, using Plame's married name of Wilson, said they "expect documents from the White House, the State Department and the CIA will corroborate Mr. Libby's account that Ms. Wilson's affiliation with the CIA was regarded throughout the government as a minor issue prior to Mr. Novak's article." They also said the papers will help them show that "Mr. Libby had no intent to lie because he did not believe that Ms. Wilson's employment status was classified."

Fitzgerald reiterated in his own filing that he believes Libby's team already has all the documents in hand that are relevant to Libby's defense, except a few that may be produced under seal.