The Libby trial has started and opening statements have concluded. You can read Fitz’ statement here and Wells’ statement here. There were suprisingly few surprises. The juiciest tidbit came in Wells’ opening statement.
Fitz said Libby may have had a motive to lie, because Scottie [McClellan] said you’d lose your job if you leaked.
Mr. Libby was not concerned about losing his job. He was concerned about being set up. He was concerned about being the scapegoat.
Mr. Libby said to the VP, “I think the WH, people are trying to set me up, people want me to be the scapegoat. people in the WH want me to protect Karl Rove.”
Cheney made notes of what Libby said. Notes show Libby telling VP that he was not involved in leak. [oops, Wells, accidentally said, “not involved in leak to Karl Rove.”
Cheney’s note: “Not going to protect one staffer and sacrifice the guy that was asked to stick his neck in the meat grinder because of the incompetence of others.”
The person who was to be protected was Karl Rove. Karl Rove was President Bush’s right hand person. Karl Rove was the person most responsible for making sure Bush stayed in office. He had to be protected. The person who was to be sacrificed.
So, Cheney felt that the 16 words got into the SOTU because of the incompetence of others? Or did Cheney feel that the leak of Plame’s employment was incompetent? It would seem to be the former because Libby stuck his neck out to rebut Wilson. Cathie Martin was the normal press contact for the OVP, but after Wilson’s column appeared Libby was given the job of working with the press.
emptywheel is updating every 15 minutes. She is doing a superb job of paraphrasing the court proceedings. I guess we all owe the firedoglake people a huge debt of gratitude for this service. I really wish we could watch this on television, but this is the next best thing. Love the internets.
