Plame Investigation
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06.13.06
Having your blog on hiatus can be a wonderfully cleansing experience. You’d be surprised how dramatically your world-view improves when Karl Rove, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Tom DeLay, and Bill Frist aren’t around to taint it.
They were always there, of course, but it was easy to ignore them. For seven months, I lived a blessed life — American politics receded into a wall of vague background noise, and I slipped into the gloriously apathetic mindset that is the birthright of every patriotic American. Things that used to make me outraged soon made me shrug. I unglued myself from the computer, and walked into the sunshine. It was bright, and it felt good. I was happy.
I wish I could say that the announcement that Karl Rove will not be indicted in the Plame case found me in that blissful state, and passed through me like a breeze, but the truth is that it was a remarkably uncordial welcome-back-to-the-blog on the part of Mr. Fitzgerald, especially after all of the wonderful sentiments expressed around these parts yesterday. It frustrates me to no end that Rove has slipped through the prosecutor’s clutches: Rove is a villain — so smug, so evil — straight out of central casting, and it would have been satisfying to see him get his comeuppance at the end of the film.
But, as Christy at FireDogLake reminds us, a prosecutor can only go forward with the evidence he has, and apparently, Fitzgerald didn’t have enough. It’s hard to believe that Rove didn’t trip up even once during all those hours of testifying and cross-examination, but that’s why he’s such a good villain — he forces you to admire his skill even as your estimation of his moral worth sinks lower and lower.
So, Rove is a free man, and we are an extremely unhappy and frustrated bunch. It’s a return to normalcy, I guess.
Can I go back outside now?
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10.29.05
From Patrick Fitzgerald’s news conference yesterday:
Let me then ask your next question: Well, why is this a leak investigation that doesn’t result in a charge? I’ve been trying to think about how to explain this, so let me try. I know baseball analogies are the fad these days. Let me try something.
If you saw a baseball game and you saw a pitcher wind up and throw a fastball and hit a batter right smack in the head, and it really, really hurt them, you’d want to know why the pitcher did that. And you’d wonder whether or not the person just reared back and decided, I’ve got bad blood with this batter. He hit two home runs off me. I’m just going to hit him in the head as hard as I can.
You also might wonder whether or not the pitcher just let go of the ball or his foot slipped, and he had no idea to throw the ball anywhere near the batter’s head. And there’s lots of shades of gray in between.
You might learn that you wanted to hit the batter in the back and it hit him in the head because he moved. You might want to throw it under his chin, but it ended up hitting him on the head.
And what you’d want to do is have as much information as you could. You’d want to know: What happened in the dugout? Was this guy complaining about the person he threw at? Did he talk to anyone else? What was he thinking? How does he react? All those things you’d want to know.
And then you’d make a decision as to whether this person should be banned from baseball, whether they should be suspended, whether you should do nothing at all and just say, Hey, the person threw a bad pitch. Get over it.
In this case, it’s a lot more serious than baseball. And the damage wasn’t to one person. It wasn’t just Valerie Wilson. It was done to all of us.
And as you sit back, you want to learn: Why was this information going out? Why were people taking this information about Valerie Wilson and giving it to reporters? Why did Mr. Libby say what he did? Why did he tell Judith Miller three times? Why did he tell the press secretary on Monday? Why did he tell Mr. Cooper? And was this something where he intended to cause whatever damage was caused?
Or did they intend to do something else and where are the shades of gray?
And what we have when someone charges obstruction of justice, the umpire gets sand thrown in his eyes. He’s trying to figure what happened and somebody blocked their view.
As you sit here now, if you’re asking me what his motives were, I can’t tell you; we haven’t charged it.
So what you were saying is the harm in an obstruction investigation is it prevents us from making the fine judgments we want to make.
I also want to take away from the notion that somehow we should take an obstruction charge less seriously than a leak charge.
This is a very serious matter and compromising national security information is a very serious matter. But the need to get to the bottom of what happened and whether national security was compromised by inadvertence, by recklessness, by maliciousness is extremely important. We need to know the truth. And anyone who would go into a grand jury and lie, obstruct and impede the investigation has committed a serious crime.I will say this: Mr. Libby is presumed innocent. He would not be guilty unless and until a jury of 12 people came back and returned a verdict saying so.
But if what we allege in the indictment is true, then what is charged is a very, very serious crime that will vindicate the public interest in finding out what happened here.
Anyone who implies that charges of perjury, obstruction of justice, and making false statements to the grand jury are not extremely serious allegations needs to read the statements above one more time.
Anyone who argues that Libby was somehow vindicated, because he was not charged with leaking classified information, needs to revisit the baseball metaphor, and to ponder Fitzgerald’s tactics.
Anyone who thinks that Patrick Fitzgerald is anything other than a straight-arrow, apolitical prosecutor with iron-clad integrity, driven only by a deep desire for truth, needs to read more about him in The Washington Post, The New York Times, or USA Today.
And anyone who claims that the White House, or anyone in danger of being charged in this investigation, is not worried about a widening inquiry that is likely to destroy any remaining shreds of credibility that the administration retains, is spinning wildly and throwing sand in your eyes.
Make no mistake: this is the beginning of the end of the Bush Administration as we know it.
And I feel fine.
UDPATE: Obviously, there is a lot of speculation and tea-leaf reading taking place based on the text of the indictments and Fitzgerald’s press conference. It remains to be seen whether Fitzgerald will turn out to be Eliot Ness or Jennie Finch. Is he testing the resilience of the Cheney firewall or pulling his punches? I’m betting on the former — Big Time.
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10.28.05
Vice-President Cheney’s Chief of Staff, Scooter Libby, who also worked as an assistant to President Bush, HAS BEEN INDICTED ON FIVE COUNTS IN THE PLAME CASE.
The charges are perjury, obstruction of justice, and making false statements to the grand jury. Libby has resigned.
Rove has not been charged today, but will remain under continuing investigation by the special counsel.
illustration via kidscosmos
James Moore, writing on The Huffington Post, reminds us of the significance of these indictments (via All-Spin Zone):
Leaking the names of CIA agents is not politics; it is a crime. Lying to congress about evidence for a war is not politics; it is a crime. Failing to tell a grand jury that you met with a reporter and talked about the CIA agent is not forgetfullness; it is a crime. Deceiving your entire nation and frightening children and adults with images of nuclear explosions in order to get them to support a bloody invasion of another country is not politics; it is a crime.
Two other important reads, also via ASZ: Firedoglake, for continuing analysis of the documents released today, and Senator Kennedy’s powerful statement, posted on Eschaton.
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10.27.05
This seems to epitomize where we stand tonight:
Confusion reigns.
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10.27.05
Just sayin’ . . .
Bradley C. Bower/AP
Philadelphia City Councilman Rick Mariano (right) is assisted by his spokesman, Frank Keel, as they arrive today at federal court for Mariano’s arraignment on federal fraud and bribery charges. (Philly.com)
Ron Edmonds/AP
Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, I. Lewis ‘Scooter’ Libby, walks into the White House, Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2005, using crutches. Lawyers representing key White House officials expect Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald to decide this week whether to charge Libby and top presidential political adviser Karl Rove in the leak of a CIA officer’s identity. (Yahoo)
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10.25.05
Atrios and Raw Story pointed to a Washington Note piece on the Plame case, and promptly broke the site. (update: link is working now)
Thankfully, via Liberal Avenger, we have the story:
Indictments Coming Tomorrow; Targets Received Letters Today
An uber-insider source has just reported the following to TWN:
1. 1-5 indictments are being issued. The source feels that it will be towards the higher end.
2. The targets of indictment have already received their letters.
3. The indictments will be sealed indictments and “filed” tomorrow.
4. A press conference is being scheduled for Thursday.
The shoe is dropping.
More soon.
– Steve Clemons
Also, read this: BREAKING: McClellan Throws Rove & Scooter Under The Bus (via Steve Clemons/TWN)
UPDATE: Looks like the announcement will come tomorrow.
UPDATE #2 (10/26): Raw Story reports that we won’t hear anything today. But it also says that Fitzgerald has asked the grand jury to indict Rove and Libby on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice. Libby will face an additional charge of knowingly outing a covert operative. Two other officials not in the White House are expected to face charges as well.
UPDATE #3 (10/26): On The Booman Tribune, Richard Sale says that Fitzgerald has asked for the probe to be extended, and that that the indictments might be announced today after all (hat tip to Jillian). CNN says otherwise (via GD Frogsdong).
I’m going to stop posting speculation and just wait until the damn things come out before writing anything else on this topic. We’ll know soon enough.
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10.25.05
Big things are afoot. Stay tuned to Raw Story. Its current top headline:
SOURCES: FITZGERALD DECIDES TO SEEK INDICTMENTS: DEVELOPING…
UPDATE: The story is up:
Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has decided to seek indictments in the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson and has submitted at least one to the grand jury, those close to the investigation tell RAW STORY.
Fitzgerald will seek at least two indictments, the sources say. They note that it remains to be seen whether the grand jury will approve the charges.
Those familiar with the case state that Fitzgerald likely will not seek indictments that assert officials leaked Plame’s name illegally. Rather, they say that he will focus charges in the arena of lying to investigators.
Any possible indictments are now in the hands of the grand jury. They are expected to be made public later this week.
RAW STORY has not learned who Fitzgerald is seeking to charge. Reports indicate that of those fingered in the case, Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, is in the most jeopardy. President Bush’s Deputy Chief of Staff, Karl Rove, also appears to have given conflicting testimony to the grand jury.
[snip]
DEVELOPING HARD….
UPDATE #2: On a separate, but related issue, Laura Rozen confirms a scoop about the origins of the fradulent yellowcake documents that Joseph Wilson described in his New York Times op-ed (the one that prompted Rove and Co. to retaliate against him by revealing his wife’s undercover identity). Two reporters for an Italian newspaper, La Repubblica, present new details about the Italian government’s role in spreading the fake documents. It’s a little confusing, but this seems to be the nut:
What may be most significant to American observers, however, is the newspaper’s allegation that the Italians sent the bogus intelligence about Niger and Iraq not only through traditional allied channels such as the CIA, but seemingly directly into the White House. That direct White House channel amplifies questions about a now-infamous 16-word reference to the Niger uranium in President Bush’s 2003 State of the Union address — which remained in the speech despite warnings from the CIA and the State Department that the allegation was not substantiated.
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10.24.05
From the New York Times: Cheney Told Aide of C.I.A. Officer, Notes Show
I. Lewis Libby Jr., Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, first learned about the C.I.A. officer at the heart of the leak investigation in a conversation with Mr. Cheney weeks before her identity became public in 2003, lawyers involved in the case said Monday.
Notes of the previously undisclosed conversation between Mr. Libby and Mr. Cheney on June 12, 2003, appear to differ from Mr. Libby’s testimony to a federal grand jury that he initially learned about the C.I.A. officer, Valerie Wilson, from journalists, the lawyers said.
The notes, taken by Mr. Libby during the conversation, for the first time place Mr. Cheney in the middle of an effort by the White House to learn about Ms. Wilson’s husband, Joseph C. Wilson IV, who was questioning the administration’s handling of intelligence about Iraq’s nuclear program to justify the war.
Lawyers said the notes show that Mr. Cheney knew that Ms. Wilson worked at the C.I.A. more than a month before her identity was made public and her undercover status was disclosed in a syndicated column by Robert D. Novak on July 14, 2003.
And which “lawyers involved in the case,” pray tell, were those? Do they happen to be lawyers for Scooter Libby?
If so, James Wolcott was right on the money:
So, imagine you’re Scooter Libby awaiting the word from the grand jury.
Are you going to be the fall guy, the patsy, the designated chump bearing the cross of blame while Rove plays the part of injured bystander? Are you happy at the prospect that your name may soon be a national joke on the lips of every late-nite comedian? Are you going to ignore the humiliation of being hung out to dry by your colleagues and hold your head high in silent stoic resolve?
See, I’m imagining that if I’m Scooter Libby, I might be thinking that Karl and his crew overplayed their hand making me the leper, and maybe I’ve got some things of my own to divulge, and if I go down, maybe I won’t be going down alone.
They’re not going to pin this all on me.
I had no idea that Wolcott was part-Vulcan.
Back to The Times:
But the evidence of Mr. Cheney’s direct involvement in the effort to learn more about Mr. Wilson is sure to intensify the political pressure on the White House in a week of high anxiety among Republicans about the potential for the case to deal a sharp blow to Mr. Bush’s presidency.
Oh, yeah, baby — I like it like that.
Here are a few other relevant reads:
Tiny Revolution: Top Ten Things We Will Soon Learn About Patrick Fitzgerald (via Two Political Junkies)
Billmon’s last twenty-five posts, but especially The New Pravda’s Lost Year and Fitzgerald’s New Boss
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10.06.05
I don’t know about you, but I’ve been on pins and needles all day.
Via Atrios and Think Progress comes this AP report:
Federal prosecutors have accepted an offer from presidential adviser Karl Rove to give 11th-hour testimony in the case of a CIA officer’s leaked identity but have warned they cannot guarantee he won’t be indicted, according to people directly familiar with the investigation.
The persons, who spoke only on condition of anonymity because of grand jury secrecy, said Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has not made any decision yet on whether to file criminal charges against the longtime confidant of President Bush or others.
Lawrence O’Donnell (via TalkLeft) predicts “at least three high level Bush Administration personnel indicted and possibly one or more very high level unindicted co-conspirators.”
But he also suggests that it might be a while before we know:
If no one RSVPs to Fitzgerald’s invitations, look for indictments as early as next week. If anyone does sit down with Fitzgerald, he will probably have to move to extend the grand jury, which now has only thirteen working days left in its term.
Rove has responded, obviously, so we might have to wait.
In the meantime, we can day-dream, can’t we?
Update: Laurence O’Donnell again (via Billmon):
What this means is Rove’s lawyer, Bob Luskin, believes his client is defintely going to be indicted.
So, Luskin is sending Rove back into the grand jury to try to get around the prosecutor and sell his innocence directly to the grand jurors. Legal defense work doesn’t get more desperate than this. The prosecutor is happy to let Rove go under oath again–without his lawyer in the room–and try to wiggle out of the case. The prosecutor has every right to expect that Rove’s final under-oath grilling will either add a count or two to the indictment or force Rove to flip and testify against someone else. Others have speculated that Fitzgerald is trying to get Rove to flip on a higher-up. I have a hard time believing that will happen. Not because he is virtuous, but rather because it isn’t in his self-interest. I doubt he could have much of a career of any kind if he turned on Cheney, Bush, Bolton, or any of the higher-ups potentially involved in this. Even if he’s convicted of perjury, conspiracy, and obstruction, he can still look forward to a long career in Republican circles, as G. Gordon Liddy and Oliver North could attest.
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10.05.05
Forget the avian flu — Washington has indictment fever. Seems like we hear about a new outbreak every day. (via Atrios)
Rumors are flying that twenty-two indictments in the Plame case may be near (via Shakespeare’s Sister).
Must be something in the kool-aid.
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