Mr McClellan criticised the way in which officials attacked his book A former White House press secretary has said he does not know whether White House officials broke the law when they leaked a CIA agent's identity. He also alleged President Bush and Vice President Cheney had asked him to say an aide to Mr Cheney had not leaked the name, a claim which later proved false. Scott McClellan's remarks came during testimony before a US congressional committee about the White House's role. Mr McClellan also criticised aides' reaction to his book about the affair. White House officials had been "misrepresenting what I wrote and seeking to discredit me though inaccurate personal attacks," he told the US House of Representatives' Judiciary Committee. And he called on President George W Bush to embrace "openness and candour... and constantly strive to build trust across the aisle". Leak inquiry Mr McClellan was being questioned by the committee about his role in the 2003 leaking of CIA agent Valerie Plame's covert status. In his testimony, Mr McClellan asserted that the White House has "refused" to tell the whole story about administration officials' role in the Plame affair, despite having "promised or assured the American people that at some point when this was behind us [it] would talk publicly about it". Mr McClellan's book caused a storm on publication last month for its revelations about the CIA leak case. In the book, Mr McClellan stated that he had "unknowingly passed along false information", when he had announced in a press conference that two White House officials - Karl Rove and Lewis "Scooter" Libby - were "not involved" in leaking Ms Plame's identity. WHAT IS CIA LEAK CASE ABOUT? Libby was found guilty of lying to the FBI and a grand jury over revelations about CIA agent Valerie Plame's identity Critics said the White House leaked Ms Plame's identity to undermine her husband, ex-ambassador Joseph Wilson He had publicly cast doubt on the Bush administration's case for war in Iraq The alleged cover-up, rather than the leak itself, was the subject of the Libby trial

Q&A: CIA leak case And he alleged that "five of the highest ranking officials in the administration were involved in my doing so: Rove, Libby, the vice-president, the president's chief-of-staff, and the president himself." He later stressed that he was not suggesting Mr Bush deliberately lied. Libby, Vice-President Dick Cheney's former chief-of-staff, was the only person charged over the affair. He was sentenced to 30 months in jail for obstructing an inquiry into the leaking of the identity. However, Mr Bush intervened in July 2007 to prevent Libby from serving a prison term. Later that month, a judge dismissed a civil lawsuit brought by Ms Plame against Mr Cheney and other Bush administration officials. She maintained her cover had been blown after her husband, Joseph Wilson, a former ambassador, said the Bush administration had manipulated intelligence on Iraq to back its case for war.



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