The Libby people crack me up. They’ve been making every assurance to the judge that Scooter Libby is going to testify. In fact, the judge even said something like ‘there will be hell to pay if Libby doesn’t testify’. You’d have to dig up the firedoglake transcipts to get the exact quote. They fought all kinds of evidentiary battles with the understanding that Libby would testify. None of that takes away Libby’s 5th amendment rights, but the judge is going to go ballistic if Libby chickens out. As for the Vice-President, I’m absoutely dying to have him testify. I can’t imagine a better chance to nail him for perjury and finally end his oversized role in our long national nightmare. But, the pardon’s in the mail and there is no reason for Cheney to testify. He can’t get his warmongering buddy off the hook no matter what he says.
I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby’s lawyers are debating whether to call Libby’s former boss, Vice President Dick Cheney, to the stand, a source with knowledge of the lawyers’ discussions told CNN on Thursday.
Libby’s lawyers also are debating whether Libby should testify, the source said…
…The source said it does not seem a decision has been made about whether either will testify.
Some in the defense team believe the prosecutor’s presentation has been strong and persuasive and therefore would open both Cheney and Libby up to a grilling when they were cross-examined, which would not help sway the jury, the source with knowledge of the discussions said.
It was the expectation of the defense team to put both Libby and Cheney on the stand to help buttress its case, the source said.
It must be hard for the Byron Yorks of the world to watch their bogus arguments go up in flames. If Cheney wasn’t guilty of outing Plame and if Libby wasn’t guilty of doing the dirty work, do you think they’d be afraid to have him testify?
