Reuters is reporting that Saint Judith has “discovered notes from an earlier conversation she had with Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff [Scoooter Libby].”


Judith Miller, a New York Times reporter, has “turned [the notes] over the prosecutor investigating the leak of a covert CIA operative’s identity, legal sources said on Friday.” As Catnip’s story today states, Miller must meet with Fitzgerald next Tuesday.

Miller’s notes about a June 2003 conversation with Cheney’s chief of staff, Lewis “Scooter” Libby, could be important to prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald’s case by establishing exactly when Libby and other administration officials first started talking to reporters about CIA operative Valerie Plame and her diplomat husband, Joseph Wilson.


A report from The Observer quotes a source who said that Miller’s notes “could significantly change the time frame of Miller’s involvement with Libby” (via numediaman.)

Huh. Did Judy forget about the notes, and just run across them? I wonder if Mr. Fitzgerald knew that some notes were missing, or if he suspected notes were missing and demanded that Judy come up with them. And will this delay the conclusion of Fitzgerald’s investigation because he may have to call in Libby, Rove, Miller herself, or others again? As numediaman observes, “there is no reason for Fitzgerald to rush to end this investigation.”


The NYT doesn’t have a story up on Judy’s found notes, but is reporting that Timothy Flanigan, Bush’s pick for the second-ranking position at the Justice Department — after Deputy AG James Comey, who had appointed Fitzgerald, left for a cushy job at Lockheed Martin — “abruptly withdrew his nomination today after facing weeks of questions over his ties to the lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his role in formulating torture policies, officials said.”


MORE below, including the just-published ACLU statement on Flanigan’s withdrawal:


There had been considerable concern about how Flanigan’s appointment would affect Fitzgerald’s investigation, even though rules would not permit any overt direction of the special prosecutor’s work.

The NYT says that the chief concern for “Democrats and some Republicans was Mr. Flanigan’s role at Tyco as general counsel in overseeing the lobbying work of Mr. Abramoff in pushing for Tyco and other companies to maintain their tax-exempt status.”


“Mr. Flanigan’s withdrawal,” says the NYT, “reflects the fact that Mr. Abramoff has become so tarnished that anyone connected to him risks significant political damage in Washington, including Tom Delay.”


The Washington Post also has the story on Flanigan: “No. 2 Justice Candidate Withdraws Name,” via The Daou Report. (However, the WaPo seems to be down at the moment.)


Update [2005-10-7 17:51:35 by susanhu]: From the ACLU:

The following can be attributed to Christopher E. Anders, an ACLU Legislative Counsel:

“Flanigan was hit from all sides during this confirmation process, about his role in multiple scandals. When pressed, he refused to account for his role in the development of policies that led to the abuses at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay. Flanigan had no business supervising prosecutors responsible for investigating and prosecuting torture and abuse that his own policies helped facilitate.


“While Flanigan may fade away from the spotlight, lawmakers must continue to focus on the decisions that led to interrogation policies that abandon the rule of law. Low-ranking individuals like Private Lynndie England have been charged and sentenced, but the higher-ups that crafted these policies have gotten off scot-free. We renew our call on Attorney General Gonzales to appoint an independent, impartial special counsel to investigate the torture and abuses scandal. It is the only way to assure the public that this government is committed to demanding accountability, eliminating abusive interrogation procedures and restoring the rule of law.”


Read the ACLU’s letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Timothy Flanigan’s record.