Raw Story did a nice interview with Marcy Wheeler over the weekend. One part I really liked is this exchange.
BB: How disappointed were you when Cheney was excused.
MW: I wasn’t surprised. But you know Cheney can’t keep his cool. He may be very intelligent, but if you look at what happened with Leahy he can’t keep his cool when somebody challenges him and he’s never been challenged by journalists in the way he would have been challenged by Fitzgerald. But I just think there was no way they could have scoped the testimony narrowly enough to avoid Cheney opening himself up to charges. If you read Sid Blumenthal’s piece from last week where people were telling Libby not to take the fall for Cheney. It’s pretty clear that everyone agrees that’s what he’s in the process of doing. It would defy the point of him taking the fall if Dick Cheney took the stand and exposed himself to a perjury charge. Plus the fact that—I don’t even think that Cheney could have successfully reinforced Libby’s testimony. John Hannah was a huge bust for the defense. They had a great witness, John Hannah, saying if Libby took 2 hrs on July 8 to meet with Judith Miller there’d be no way he’d forget it.
I think she really nailed what is going on here. It defies any logic for Cheney to expose himself to perjury charges in a case that is only happening to shield him from prosecution.
Consider this from Fitzgerald’s rebuttal this afternoon:
Cathie Martin [Cheney’s ex-spokesperson], one call or two calls, she knows that when she came back. Do you think for a moment, that the conversation that defendant described, I don’t know if it’s true, if it happened in front of Martin. She’s very careful. When someone discussed NIE on July 8, she got nervous, she left the room, in part for that reason. When VP added NIE to talking point. She got nervous. When Wells asked her, you knew abotu Plame, It wasn’t a huge revelation to me, but I knew it was huge deal that he disclosed it. SHe said, that’s a big deal. You think she’s going to sit there and listen to Libby talking abotu Wilson’s wife? Everything corroborates taht it happened at end of call.
One more thing that corrborates. THe VP wrote week before that wife sent him on a junket. THe VP moves to number 1 talking point. You just think it’s coincidence that Cheney was writing this.
There is a cloud over the VP. He wrote those columns, he had those meetings, He sent Libby off to the meeting with Judy. Where Plame was discussed. That cloud remains because the denfendant obstructed justice. That cloud was there. That cloud is something that we just can’t pretend isn’t there.
It’s obvious that Fitzgerald thinks the Vice-President is the real leaker. And we know the Vice-President did not learn of Valerie Plame from reporters. Libby got indicted in an effort to flip him. He didn’t flip, so now Fitz is going for a conviction. And then it will be up to Bush to offer a pardon before Fitz can sell Libby on a deal.
Geez, BooMan. Did you take some editorial Viagra today? You’ve written a number of excellent posts – I can barely keep up!
I can’t keep up with the two posts below (!), but I concur with this thought.
on all three charges and all counts: Count 1: Obstruction of Justice (18 U.S.C. Section 1503); Counts 2-3: False Statements (18 U.S.C. Section 1001(a)(2)); Counts 4-5: Perjury (18 U.S.C. Section 1623).
What are the implications? The implications are that testimony during his trial has revealed that he did not act alone.
Cheney, like Libby, and the president (as long as we also assume no one is above the law, as we finally assumed in re Nixon during Watergate)
In which case, Cheney is indictable.
Now, Libby may wish to address himself to a deal, if he chooses to come forward and say what Cheney’s role was in dircting the leak to various reporters.
So, we see Libby, being guilty of perjury, must source it back to Cheney (who else is there?), reaffirming his violation of the law cited above, since Libby was not entitled to classified information regarding Plame’s status. On the last count of perjury, if found guilty, it seems to me we have to conclude that he lied to cover up evidence of a conspiracy to obstruct justice. Now, there’s no such thing as a one-man conspiracy. So, Cheney’s (at least) the other conspirator.
Under these conditions, Fitz can now threaten the guilty Libby with new charges: conspiracy to cover-up a crime — the disclosure of classified information — and offer him a deal: to turn on Cheney, or face the charges and face a considerable and significant prison sentence.
Will Libby choose to continues as Fall Guy or choose to turn Cooperative Witness? If the latter, and if we assume that Bush wants to relieve him of his burden to society, how many times is the president prepared to pardon him? And will Bush want to pardon his VP as well for what is tantamount to treason? That’ll look good, considering he’s the president pointing the most fingers and shouting “TREASON!” the loudest at anyone who disagrees with his warmongering ways. Just how does he think history would interpret that?
Cath Murray Waas’ scoop
The Libby-Cheney Connection
Libby Testimony Raises More Questions About Cheney’s Role In The CIA Leak Case
By Murray Waas, National Journal
Will Fitz be done? Will he sack Cheney?
“If Libby is found guilty, investigators are likely to probe further to determine if Libby devised what they consider a cover story in an effort to shield Cheney.”
So let me ask again Boo, if/when GW pardons Libby, what will the msm do? Give him a free pass? Jump all over him? Talk about rehab for Brittney Spears? Predict the winner of American Idol? (I pick the first one)
IANAL, But….
If Libby is pardoned then he no longer can take the 5th and refuse to testify, right? So Scooter would have to tell the truth about Shooter, or face a perjury rap, right?
So it would be a bad move for BushCo to pardon Scooter while Fitz is still on the job. Is another Saturday night massacre upcoming?
Another fascinating question is, was Shooter acting alone or was the Chimp in on it too? Maybe Fitz can flip Scooter to get Shooter, and then flip Shooter to get the Chimp (except that getting the Chimp would require impeachment). But that’s back on the table once Shooter is removed from the line of succession.
A Bush pardon, to have no consequences for Bush, must come at the end of his term (December 2008). If Bush prematurely pardons Libby, I think that might be the tipping point for impeachment. How blatant an obstruction of justice for a self-serving president do you have to have?
But it all depends on the public response, especially in Republican strongholds.
Libby will appeal. There is no need to pardon him immediately unless they are worried that he will cut a deal with Fitz rather than continue the fight. But they’ve raised the money for his defense (another form of obstruction of justice).
I agree with the other posters – Libby will appeal and Bush will pardon at the end of his term.
It’s pretty obvious to me (and everyone else) that Libby, Rove, VP and POTUS all conspired to take down Wilson and outed his wife. Bush has never ONCE acted as if he was at all serious about getting rid of any leakers after stating that he would and he had a whole WH full of leakers. Why? Because he knew all along what had taken place (the smoking gun is the Cheney note with the Pres crossed out) and just expected to get away with it until Fitz came along.
However, Congress should start an investigation of OVP and Cheney concurrent with Fitz’s investigation and use the power of Congress to crack this mess wide open. Cheney should be impeached and if the evidence indicates the President knew, then he should be impeached too.