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Bush approved intelligence leak on Iraq
While there is no suggestion that Bush did anything illegal, the allegation could hurt him at a time when his approval ratings are already at historic lows.
US President George W Bush authorised the disclosure of secret intelligence on Iraq to the media to make his case for war, court documents quoted a former White House official as testifying.
The document, filed by a prosecutor in US federal court on Thursday, said Vice President Dick Cheney told his then chief of staff, I Lewis Libby, that Bush "specifically had authorised" Libby to leak information from the classified 2002 National Intelligence Estimate (NIE).
While there is no suggestion that Bush did anything illegal, the allegation could hurt him at a time when his approval ratings are already at historic lows.
The court document by special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald said Libby testified to a grand jury investigating the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's name to the media.
Plame's husband, former US diplomat Joseph Wilson, claims the White House exposed his wife in retaliation for his criticism of the Bush administration's arguments for going to war in Iraq.
While Libby did not specifically state that Bush or Cheney wanted him to disclose Plame's identity, he testified that the vice president directed him to talk to the press "regarding the NIE and Wilson," said the document.
Libby has pleaded not guilty to criminal charges of obstructing justice and lying to authorities in the probe of Plame's identity being leaked in the White House.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said, "In light of today's shocking revelation, President Bush must fully disclose his participation in the selective leaking of classified information. The American people must know the truth."
Bush had pledged in the past to get to the bottom of who was behind the leak. On Sep 30, 2003, he said: "If there is a leak out of my administration, I want to know who it is."
The president at the time urged all members of his administration to cooperate fully with the investigation.
The NIE dealt with intelligence about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programme before the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.
Libby testified that the circumstances leading up to his disclosure of the NIE to then New York Times reporter Judith Miller were highly unusual.
Libby "testified that the circumstances of his conversation with reporter Miller - getting approval from the president through the vice president to discuss material that would be classified but for that approval - were unique in his recollection," according to the document.
He noted that he hesitated to the intelligence report with a reporter because it was classified. But Cheney thought it was "very important" for key judgments of the NIE to be revealed, Libby testified.
