Yes, Joe seems to have married up. But as I had posted once before... don't we all?
| Submit your comments on this article |
| Home Front: Politix |
| Scooter Libby indicted on 5 counts-Resigns |
| 2005-10-28 |
| WASHINGTON (CNN) -- I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, resigned on Friday after a federal grand jury indicted him on charges related to the CIA leak investigation. Libby was indicted on one count of obstruction of justice, two counts of perjury and two counts of making false statements, court documents show. The indictments were not directly related to the actual leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson's name. (Read the full text of the indictment) "These are very serious charges," said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid. "They suggest a senior White House aide put politics ahead of our national security and the rule of law. This case is bigger than the leak of highly classified information. It is about how the Bush administration manufactured and manipulated intelligence in order to bolster its case for the war in Iraq," Senate minority leader Harry Reid said in a prepared statement. These indictments are the first in a nearly two-year investigation. Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has scheduled a 2 p.m. ET news conference. A news release by Fitzgerald said Libby allegedly lied "about how and when in 2003 he learned and subsequently disclosed to reporters then-classified information concerning the employment of Valerie Wilson by the Central Intelligence Agency." It said Libby "lied to FBI agents who interviewed him" in October and November 2003; committed perjury "while testifying under oath before the grand jury" in March 2004; and "engaged in obstruction of justice by impeding the grand jury's investigation into the unauthorized disclosure -- or 'leaking' -- of Valerie Wilson's affiliation with the CIA to various reporters in the spring of 2003." "When citizens testify before grand juries they are required to tell the truth," Fitzgerald said in the statement. "Without the truth, our criminal justice system cannot serve our nation or its citizens." There was no immediate response from Libby to the charges. His attorneys have previously denied that he was guilty of any criminal conduct. Meanwhile, President Bush's top political strategist Karl Rove will not be indicted Friday by the federal grand jury investigating the leak, sources close to the investigation tell CNN. But, the sources said, Rove is not out of legal jeopardy as the matter is still under investigation. Lawyers involved in the case have told CNN that Fitzgerald is focusing on whether Rove committed perjury. Rove testified four times in front of the grand jury. 'No decision' Rove's attorney Robert Luskin issued a statement Friday that Fitzgerald "has advised Mr. Rove that he has made no decision about whether or not to bring charges." "Mr. Rove will continue to cooperate fully with the Special Counsel's efforts to complete the investigation," Luskin's statement said. "We are confident that when the Special Counsel finishes his work, he will conclude that Mr. Rove has done nothing wrong." As Rove departed his home in Washington Friday morning, he told reporters, "I am going to have a great Friday and a fantastic weekend and hope you do too." Libby's indictment came at a time when Bush's approval ratings already are at a low ebb. This week alone the president's embattled Supreme Court nominee, Harriet Miers, withdrew, and the number of U.S. military deaths in the Iraq war surpassed 2,000. Bush suggested at the beginning of the investigation that he would fire anyone on his staff who was involved in the leak. He appeared to set a higher standard in July, saying, "If someone committed a crime, they will no longer work in my administration." The event that triggered the legal and political quagmire that has put the White House on edge was a syndicated newspaper column by Robert Novak, published on July 14, 2003, about Joe Wilson. A week earlier, Wilson, a retired U.S. diplomat, publicly claimed that Bush administration officials, intent on building a case to depose Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, hyped unsupported claims that Hussein sought to buy uranium for nuclear weapons from Niger. Novak, who also is a CNN contributor, was writing about the CIA's decision to send Wilson to the African nation in February 2002 to investigate the claims, which later wound up in Bush's 2003 State of Union address. About midway through his column, Novak noted that Wilson "never worked for the CIA, but his wife, Valerie Plame, is an agency operative on weapons of mass destruction." An angry Wilson accused administration officials of deliberately leaking his wife's identity as a CIA operative -- thus ending her career as an undercover agent -- to retaliate against him for going public with his criticism. Both Rove and Libby have denied leaking Plame's name. Deliberately disclosing the identity of a CIA operative can be a crime, and Fitzgerald, the U.S. attorney in Chicago, was named in September 2003 as a special prosecutor to investigate after then-Attorney General John Ashcroft recused his office to avoid any conflict of interest. |
| Posted by:ElvisHasLeftTheBuilding |
| #25 This case is bigger than the leak of highly classified information. It is about how the Bush administration manufactured and manipulated intelligence in order to bolster its case for the war in Iraq," Harry Reid is spinning himself into the ground. This case is, in fact, about much less than a leak of classified information. No one is charged with leaking anything. Nor does it have anything to do with Iraq. It's about Libby apparently trying to lie his way out of having to describe otherwise defensible behavior. (You can expect lots of Martha Stewart comparisons before this is over). Reid gives off more than a whiff of desperation. |
| Posted by: Baba Tutu 2005-10-28 22:09 |
| #24 Y'all may want to check out Donald Sensing's take on the situation; it's at his weblog. |
| Posted by: Phil 2005-10-28 21:59 |
| #23 a crazy liberal loonie Nope, don't see anything of that nature. It's just you. Have you been weaning yourself off of any medications lately? |
| Posted by: Thoth 2005-10-28 21:29 |
| #22 Where is all the smear on Fitzgerald King? It looks to me like you came here with a talking point, and sorry if Kos didn't provide you with the proper plan. Go back to your hole. |
| Posted by: Thoth 2005-10-28 21:26 |
| #21 Sorry,you guys can't smear Fitzgerald like you smeared D.A. Earle.Fitz was appointed by a crazy liberal loonie by the name of...John Ashcroft. |
| Posted by: King 2005-10-28 20:43 |
| #20 Maybe this Valerie Plame thing will see the light of day. There seems to be a lot of dirt going on behind the scenes. The Dems are trying to find anything that might stick. They are using their usual methods to get ready for election time. We need to keep our eye on the ball, i.e. the mideast. |
| Posted by: John Q. Citizen 2005-10-28 20:14 |
| #19 There's enough he spent at least a year longer than he wanted to tracking things down. He just can't get enough of a case to prove it to a jury. Otherwise he'd not be making all those hints about a new GJ. |
| Posted by: Phuck Hupaith9235 2005-10-28 20:03 |
| #18 I listened to part of the press conference this afternoon on NPR. The reporters and the NPR commentators were deperate to find some thin wedge to get Fitzgerald to actually answer anything about which they'd been making a fuss all this time. No bites. As Fitzgerald said, "All of us in this office have full time jobs back home that we want to get back to," or something to that effect. It didn't sound like there was any meat there at all. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2005-10-28 19:55 |
| #17 It seems like Fitz is hoping to scare someone into giving him the goods on the leaker by sending Libby to jail. Else, why would he have waited till the last minute to bring the indictment? Libby was foolish to have lied. However, as he was the only indictee, whatever he lied about must not have been that important as learning it did not provide Fitz with enough to indict the leaker, if any. Making Libby doubly foolish. I suspect Libby does fall on his sword to help the Pres and get this out of the papers and that is the end of it. Unfortunately it means another round of Wilson on TV. |
| Posted by: Unavise Spugum9931 2005-10-28 17:12 |
| #16 I've been wading through the leftie blogs (don't worry, I've had my shots and took a shower right afterwards). A fair bit of disappointment, tempered with the hope that this is but round 1. I can't tell based on the press conference and indictment. Seems like Mr. Fitzgerald (we know him in Chicago, he's a top-notch prosecutor, and very professional) labored long and hard to produce this. Libby: if he's guilty, he goes to jail. As said above, nobody gets a free pass for lying under oath. Rove: who can say? The term of the present grand jury is over effective today. If Mr. Fitzgerald wants to go after anyone else, he has to empanel a new GJ. He could do that, of course, but that involves re-presenting the evidence. Is that merely an inconvenience or more substantial? My guess is, he goes after Libby and sees what happens before going back to a new GJ. Hannert / Wurmser: why weren't they indicted? Same office as Libby, etc. Are they innocent, are they cooperating, or does Fitzgerald not have enough evidence? Joe Wilson: liar, or frickin' liar? Looks like the latter. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2005-10-28 17:03 |
| #15 Yes, Joe seems to have married up. But as I had posted once before... don't we all? |
| Posted by: eLarson 2005-10-28 17:00 |
#14  Say it ain't so! |
| Posted by: eLarson 2005-10-28 16:59 |
| #13 Fitzgerald was directly asked if Valerie was a covert agent. This is his response: "At all relevant times from January 1, 2002 through July 2003, Valerie Wilson was employed by the CIA, and her employment status was classified. Prior to July 14, 2003, Valerie Wilson’s affiliation with the CIA was not common knowledge outside the intelligence community. The responsibilities of certain CIA employees required that their association with the CIA be kept secret; as a result, the fact that these individuals were employed by the CIA was classified. Disclosure of the fact that such individuals were employed by the CIA had the potential to damage the national security in ways that ranged from preventing the future use of those individuals in a covert capacity, to compromising intelligence-gathering methods and operations, and endangering the safety of CIA employees and those who dealt with them." Yes, but was Valerie one of those "certain CIA employees"? He won't answer that because she wasn't. And "classified" does not make you covert. |
| Posted by: Steve 2005-10-28 16:13 |
| #12 Surprised nobody's mentioned this yet, but ever noticed Valerie Plame? She's a hottie! Damn, she's aged well. |
| Posted by: Bonanzabucks 2005-10-28 16:10 |
| #11 In politics, it's almost never the "crime", which has been shown not to be a crime (the"outing"), it's the "cover up" that generates the charges. Now the howling begins anew. Will Bush let the ankle-biters and shills and political whores of the Left derail him, or will he do as VDH suggests in the "Crossing the Rubicon" piece: "He can choose either to be nicked and slowly bled to death in his second term, or to bare his fangs and like some cornered carnivore start slashing back." Our asses hang in the balance of that question. As for the Dhimmidonks, who would happily fuck the country into oblivion for petty political gain, I look forward to CWII and their ghastly and excruciatingly painful ends. |
| Posted by: .com 2005-10-28 15:58 |
| #10 Can somebody please go punch Harry Reid in the mouth? Just on general principles... |
| Posted by: tu3031 2005-10-28 15:49 |
| #9 Fitzy will leave those questions to be answered by the Sunday talking heads... |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2005-10-28 15:47 |
| #8 I just listened to the stupid press conference and still don't have any idea: 1. Was Valerie Plame Wilson a covert agent at the time she was "outed"? 2. What ever happened to the original charges? 3. Is the grand jury still in operation? 4. Is the investigation continuing? 5. Are more indictments to come? 6. What the hell does baseball have to do with this? |
| Posted by: Steve 2005-10-28 15:35 |
| #7 If he lied to the feds and under oath, shame on him and he'll have to pay the price. That's the difference between conservatives and liberals. The liberals thing the rules only apply to someone else, conservatives appy them equally. If you don't want to answer, plead the 5th. |
| Posted by: 2b 2005-10-28 15:33 |
| #6 Scooter, meet Martha. A little needlepoint for the lonely days ahead? |
| Posted by: john 2005-10-28 14:56 |
| #5 Whatever. Can we get back now to winning the WOT and preventing the Iranians from acquiring nukes, if they have't already? |
| Posted by: Matt 2005-10-28 14:46 |
| #4 Rove is the Teflon Texan. He will never, ever, be convicted of anything, IMHO. EP |
| Posted by: ElvisHasLeftTheBuilding 2005-10-28 14:43 |
| #3 Nobody cares about Scooter Libby. Except maybe his Mom. He'll land on his feet in a cushy consultancy, and I will enjoy watching the Left chewing its arms off 'cos they can't have Karl's head on a pike outside the Media Matters HQ. |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2005-10-28 14:38 |
| #2 I guess only Democratic Presidents are allowed to lie under oath.... |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2005-10-28 14:37 |
| #1 Moral of the story: don't lie to a federal prosecutor. I read the indictment. I do not understand what in the world Libby was thinking. You cannot lie to the FBI and a special prosecutor and expect to get away with it. Prediction: he plea-bargains and does a little jail time. He can't go to trial a) because he'll be convicted on all counts and go away for years and b) it will embarrass the hell out of Cheney, and Libby won't do that. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2005-10-28 14:34 |