The White House today declined to challenge assertions that President George Bush authorised the leaks of intelligence information to counter administration critics on Iraq.
But Mr Bush's spokesman, Scott McClellan, appeared to draw a distinction about Bush's oft-stated opposition to leaks. "The president would never authorise disclosure of information that could compromise our nation's security," Mr Bush's spokesman said.
According to court papers made public oday, former White House aide Libby testified that he as authorized by President Bush to leak classified material.
Court papers filed by the prosecutor in the CIA leak case against Lewis "Scooter" Libby said Mr Bush authorised Mr Libby to disclose information from a classified pre-war intelligence report. The court papers say Mr Libby's boss, advised him that the president had authorised Libby to leak the information to the press in striking back at administration critic Joseph Wilson.
Mr McClellan volunteered that the administration declassified information from the intelligence report - the National Intelligence Estimate - and released it to the public on July 18th, 2003. But he refused to say when the information was actually declassified. The date could be significant because Mr Libby discussed the information with a reporter on July 8th of that year.
Yesterday, disclosure of official authorisation for Mr Libby's leaks to reporters brought strong criticism from administration political foes, but little likelihood that their demands for explanations will be met.
Democratic Senator John Kerry, citing Mr Bush's call two years ago to find the person who leaked the CIA identity of Mr Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, said the latest disclosures means the president needs to go no further than a mirror.
In his court filing, Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald asserted that "the president was unaware of the role that Libby had in fact played in disclosing Plame's CIA status."
The prosecutor gave no such assurance, though, regarding Mr Cheney.