Cheney May Be Called in CIA Leak Case

Vice President Dick Cheney delivers a speech at a luncheon held for congressional candidate Brian Bilbray at the Sheraton Hotel and Marina Tuesday, May 23, 2006 in San Diego, Calif.(AP Photo/Chris Park) (Chris Park - AP)

Fitzgerald contends that Plame's status as a CIA officer was classified and that Libby was told that disclosing her identity could pose a danger.

The prosecutor wants to use Cheney's notes on the Wilson article to corroborate other evidence he has that Libby lied about outing Plame to reporters.

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 at Libby's trial, which is scheduled for January.

"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."

The fact that Cheney's notations included a reference to Wilson's wife makes it "more likely than not" that the vice president and Libby discussed her shortly after Wilson's article was published _ and not weeks or months later as Libby told the grand jury, Fitzgerald wrote.

Libby also told the grand jury that Cheney often scribbled on newspaper articles and kept them on a corner of his desk at the White House.

"He often cut out from a newspaper an article using a little penknife that he has and put it on the edge of his desk," Libby testified, according to a transcript of the grand jury proceeding that Fitzgerald attached to his filing.

Libby testified that Cheney would pull an article out of the pile later and "think about it."