Cheney's Obsession?

Feb. 22, 2007— -- As a jury considers the fate of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice, questions remain concerning the depth and breadth of Vice President Dick Cheney's role in a White House-led effort that exposed the identity of a covert CIA agent.

Libby's trial revealed a Vice President fixated on knocking down allegations the Bush administration manipulated intelligence leading to the Iraq War.

"This trial is a fascinating exploration of both the political and the legal dimensions of what happened," says former federal prosecutor Michael Levy. "It's impossible to watch this trial and not feel the intense high level politics involved."

Cheney Angry, Pushed Back Against War Doubters

Libby acknowledged under oath that Cheney was angry about a July 2003 opinion article that challenged evidence used to build the case for war. The article was written by then-Ambassador Joe Wilson and published in the New York Times.

In testimony Libby gave to a grand jury in March 2004, he affirmed the seriousness of the accusation.

Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald described Libby's accusation against the Cheney as "direct", saying it implied the Vice President was "dishonest".

"If you followed the inferences that Mr. Wilson made," Fitzgerald asked Libby, "that the President was dishonest and that the country was misled into war. Is it fair to say that that was the -- perhaps the most serious attack on the administration's credibility thus far in the Presidential term?"

Libby replied, "It was a serious accusation. I'd, I'd have to go back, back over the administration to evaluate it compared to other attacks, but it was, it was a very serious attack."

Wilson's article came at a sensitive time for the White House. The United States was already several months into the war in Iraq, but United Nations inspectors had failed to find any weapons of mass destruction. 'The Match That Could Start a Runaway Fire'

The Libby trial has provided a rare glimpse into the inner workings of the Bush administration's top levels.

"What's come out of the trial is a very clear picture of what happened inside this White House when this article hit the stands," says George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley. "It was immediately recognized by Dick Cheney as the match that could start a runaway fire."

Trial documents showed that the Vice President was concerned enough to cut the article out of the newspaper, scribbling notes to refute its claims.

Fitzgerald told the jury that Cheney's office, led by Libby, was obsessed with refuting and discrediting Wilson.

Libby, who did not take the stand at his trial, testified to a grand jury the Vice President was so upset he ordered Libby to release details of the highly classified National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) to several members of the press to bolster justification for the war.

In that grand jury, Fitzgerald asked, "Can you tell us when you had the conversation with the Vice President and what concerns you raised, and what he told you in response?"

Libby responded, "The Vice President and I discussed the need to get into the public domain that the CIA National Intelligence Estimate made it clear to recipients of the National Intelligence Estimate that Iraq had been attempting to procure uranium…And the problems in letting people know what the National Intelligence Estimate said on that was that it's a classified document. So we could l not talk to the press about it until it was declassified, and I discussed that with the Vice President… And so the Vice President thought we should get some of these facts out to the press, but before it could be done, the document had to be declassified."

At Cheney's request, President Bush personally declassified the NIE -- but did not alert Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld , CIA Director George Tenet or the National Security Advisor about it.

Micromanaging the Media

Libby told the grand jury that the Vice President wanted to micromanage the media's response to Wilson saying, "Vice President (Cheney) was -- dictated to me what he wanted me to say to the press. He specifically said he wanted me to make the statement on-the-record to Time Magazine because he wanted it, he wanted it, he wanted it to draw -- he wanted it to get some attention. And he felt if I put my name on it, it l would get more attention than just a senior administration official, or however else they wrote it up. So he dictated things for me to say and he instructed me to say it -- with Time magazine, to give it basically word-for-word quote that he dictated, some background material that he wanted me to use, and for me -- with regard to the quote to use my name, which I don't usually do…He wanted to make sure it was done exactly correctly and he wanted me to give it in my name, and so I called -- so I was the one who called."

Libby also told the grand jury it was the Vice President who was the first to tell him that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA.

Fitzgerald does not claim the Vice President did anything illegal. But he has sought to show Cheney was engaged in what the prosecutor called heavy administration "pushback."

The verdict is expected at any time. Libby's fate will be determined by a vote of guilt or innocence but will do little to answer the many lingering questions in case that provided a window into power at its highest level.

ABC News' Theresa Cook and Jason Ryan contributed to this report.