WASHINGTON, July 16 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President George W. Bush on Wednesday blocked the release of Vice President Dick Cheney's interview with investigators probing the leak of a CIA agent's identity.

    He invoked executive privilege to keep that document secret, White House spokesman Tony Fratto said.

    Bush asserted the privilege claim at the request of Attorney General Michael Mukasey, who has been under pressure from a congressional committee to turn over the transcript of Cheney's interview.

    Mukasey argued that releasing the transcript would discourage future witnesses from being questioned outside grand jury proceedings.

    The records stem from the investigation into the 2003 exposure of CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson, whose husband had accused the Bush administration of twisting the intelligence used to justify the invasion of Iraq.

    Cheney's former chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, was convicted of obstructing justice and perjury in connection with the disclosure, but was not charged with leaking her name.

McClellan to testify in CIA leak case


    WASHINGTON, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Former White House spokesman Scott McClellan is set to appear at a House hearing to testify on Vice President Dick Cheney's role in the leaking of CIA agent's identity, according to a newspaper report released on Monday.

  Citing McClellan's lawyers, the Washington Post online report said that the former White House spokesman has accepted the invitation from the House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyer to testify on June 20. Full story