The PDBs Would Have Been Easier

Let's post some recent court filings in the Libby case - apparently, re-creating the daily  intelligence briefing received by Mr. Libby is quite a chore.  And an interesting point emerges - the White House is not, at this point, making any broad executive privilege claims about the intelligence briefings.  They make clear that they expect to claim privilege on some of the material after it is compiled, but they keep hope alive that some of the material will be available for a trial.

Here, Ms. Van Dorn of the CIA explains the effort involved in complying with the prospective court order to re-create the daily briefings delivered to Mr. Libby by the CIA.  Apparently, voluminous files are kept in support of the President's Daily Brief; however, other officials get different briefings, and the supporting documentation may be spread across several agencies.

We also have Special Counsel Fitzgerald's take on the situation, and the order that the judge issued after hearing from both sides (Draft version here).

Comments

[vnjagvet]

Interesting that this is a "Consent Order". As the title implies, such orders normally are the result of negotiations (sometimes extensive negotiations) between counsel.

Judges like Consent Orders. I suspect that the trial judge "encouraged" the parties to reach agreement on the issues this order resolves. I also suspect from the substance of the Order that Fitz's team felt the "encouragement" was primarily directed at them.

[kim]

That was dark work, digging that deeply.
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[vnjagvet]

Just trying to help, Kim:>).

I at least had to read the Orders to see that Fitz did not submit the order with a motion. Tough duty, but someone's got to do it!!

[Sue]

I'm so confused...are we here or are we there?

I like this. Ask and voila...

[topsecretk9]

Esplain Lucy-Esplain

what are you 2 referring to, duty?

[windansea]

hmmm..Fitzmas appears to be caught between a hard rock and a willing White House

[Sue]

Wind,

Was that 'our' Jeff you pointed out earlier?

[clarice]

How'd he get away with that? The local rule has always required filing a proposed order with a motion...

I haven't much to say on this topic except that it would be premature for anyone to claim privilege at this point that I can see..I expect that on some of the most critical stuff to the defense (say, regarding the NIE) much has already been declassified.
(TM, did you see the LAT has pulled the Holy Land story off the internet and it doesn't seem available from its archives..Rick found a copy elsewhere though.Isn't that interesting? It was online from Feb 16 thru last week when we discussed it and then--poof--it vanished.)

[topsecretk9]

This kind of floated by me...

From WIlson Florida speech

"Zalmay Khalilzad? I'd like to punch him right in the face

Who does this guy think he is? These are the words of a responsible so-called public servant? Is he the de facto king of the world?

The rhetoric dial was ratcheted up for some reason.

[windansea]

Sue

same "warmongerer rhetoric" same Jeff

[clarice]

ts--I haven't gone back to see what other doodoo he's been peddling at college campuses, and I haven't received any response to my requests of FSU for transcripts or videos but I did blog the DK report today at AT, noting the source. If the report is true, I think it is not a shrewd move by Wilson. OTOH as we say at Passover "Why is this night different from all other nights"

Haaretz is reporting BTW that the federal judge hearing the AIPAC cases has indicated the 1917 Espionage Act may be unconstitutional as applied to lobbyists.

[Kate]

Libby's team is probably looking forward to having Wilson on the stand. He will probably be carefully coached but crazy Joe is not too far from the surface.

Fitzgerald can only hope the noble whistleblower shows up, the one he knows and respects so well. But, it could be crazy, smoking Joe.

[clarice]

Could you imagine a better basis upon which to demonstrate his vitriolic animus against his political opponents and his intemperate nature?

Here BTW is the Haaretz article: http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArtVty.jhtml?sw=aipac&itemNo=698451

[topsecretk9]

If the report is true, I think it is not a shrewd move by Wilson.

No, it's not at all, which has me wondering. The reason I left all the audios of speeches (all after the start of the investigation) was to see if this level of rhetoric has always been there (and so un-reported) or if this is distinctly ratcheted up.

I didn't have the stomach to listen to them, but when I have some alone quiet time I will.

[Sue]

Under certain intances Crazy Joe's public comments can be used in court.

[topsecretk9]

FTR I know someone will try and swoop in with a certain retort to my comment above. Thought of it, don't care. Making different point.

[cboldt]

The Court's Consent Order is exactly the text in the Proposed Consent Order - it's the same paper with the word "Proposed" crossed out.

The Consent Order is in response to Fitz's "Motion to Clarify" of March 21st. Libby's team agrees with the Order.

An HTML version of Fitz's Motion to Clarify is http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1601079/posts>here.

[clarice]

Thanks cboldt.

[maryrose]

Kate:
I am certain it will be" crazy, smokin" Joe on the stand because the spotlight will be on him again. And we all know how Joe loves the spotlight! I think he will forget himself and pontificate on his view of the world and in the process sound like some raving lunatic. He's already done that in Florida by threatening physical violence against an ambassador. What a pathetic has been he is.

[TM]

Rick found a copy elsewhere though.Isn't that interesting? It was online from Feb 16 thru last week when we discussed it and then--poof--it vanished.

Hmm, much as I like conspiracy theories, I have a more prosaic thought - as I recall, the LA Times re-archived everything a while back, and their site administrator may have seen a little traffic and figured that that particular article had somehow escaped.

I'm still working on getting a Feb 24 transcript - the idea of writing the Libby websie is a good one. I've already tried Mr. Leopold, with no luck so far. But shouldn't Byron York at NRO have a copy? If he doesn't, he ought to.

[clarice]

TM, But I couldn't find the article in their archives either.. No record of it at all..

I don't recall Byron making reference to the transcript.In any event if someone has a copy and wants money to reproduce it, I'll pitch in.Whistle.

[Kate]

MR: the great mystery is that so many people were on to Wilson early, yet he conned Fitz. That makes Fitz foolish or partisan. Maybe there's a third alternative. Libby's defense team will rip Wilson to shreds, couldn't happen to a nicer guy. Have you noticed how the media covers up their props' more outrageous comments, like Wilson and Sheehan?

[Jeff]

Was that 'our' Jeff you pointed out earlier?

No, no, no. Never been to Goldstein's site. Never make fun of where someone went to college. Windansea, thanks for your powers of interpretation, though. I'm sure I'll be hearing about it as a Known Fact around here forever.

[maryrose]

Wilson and Sheehan both appear unglued at any given moment so I am sure there is is a lot of crazy footage of those two on the newsroom's cutting room floor. The most outrageous statements are muted to give the appearance of sanity but I have seen and read enough to convince me. Are you aware that Sheehan has 4 children. Why isn't she with them and her ailing mother? It doesn't make sense to me.
clarice;
Anytime something like a major bit of information disappears I wonder what's up. Kerry had things appearing and disappearing from his and the dem site all the time.Also are we ever going to see the results of the release of his 180 report. That was promised months ago on MTP.

[maryrose]

Jeff:
I am willing to give you the benefit of my belief that it was some other Jeff.

[clarice]

Kerry gave the documents to a handful of reporters who had to turn them in. You'll never see them.

[boris]

Known Fact around here forever

Don't think so, I was skeptical.

[Jeff]

TM - My take on it was somewhat different. I took this --

After reviewing the sample of documents and proposed topic overviews compiled by the CIA, the EOP and CIA determined that, while all of the responsive documents are protected by privilege, including executive privilege, and thus a blanket claim of privilege reasonably could be asserted, in light of the Court's ruling limiting production to redacted documents and topic overviews, and assuming that access to such redacted documents or topic overview would be limited to defendant and his attorneys in the SCIF as proposed by defendant (see R. 63 at 10), there is a reasonable prospect that the government could avoid a blanket assertion of privilege and instead be able to comply with the Court's Order while asserting executive privilege with respect to a discrete number of materials, if any. --

to suggest that there would not be a big privilege fight over giving the redacted documents or the topic summaries to Libby. Maybe the White House is saving it for when it's a matter of using the stuff at trial. But Walton seems to have left himself quite a bit of wiggle room to go forward at that point even in the face of executive privilege claims and problems. Frankly, I was surprised the EOP seemed so helpful at this point.

[JM Hanes]

TM

"And an interesting point emerges - the White House is not, at this point, making any broad executive privilege claims about the intelligence briefings."

I commented on this very point (Waiting for St. Patrick) last week, in the context of judicial latitude and the wiggle room between purism and pragmatism where constitutional issues are concerned.

[clarice]

Or, Jeff--Let's just say the "greymail" argument on your side of the aisle was another bit of slander.

JMH, As to the Appointment Clause challenge--isn't it interesting that (a) Fitz never made public his "clarification" letter to Comey, and(b attached not one memo or affidavit indicating the DoJ had exercised the slightest bit of supervision and control over him? I think whatever Libby was unable to tie up in his brief on that point, Fitz supplied in his response..(Comey created a loose cannon )

[maryrose]

"loose cannon" is right. Fitz has strayed plenty far afield from his initial mandate: find the leaker! We have the leaker currently in no peril and some half-baked idea of some vendetta against Joe. Ridiculous!

[JM Hanes]

Clarice

I suspect there may not even be any actual letter from Fitz requesting clarification. The guys are apparently pals, and it wouldn't surprise me if Fitz just picked up the phone to Comey and said, "Look, we've got a real problem here."

[clarice]

Could well be. OTOH where the defense argument centers on the utter lack of supervision and direction by the DoJ, I have to think if there was a shred of a scintilla of evidence of direction and control it would have been attached to the response to the motion to dismiss. Since it wasn't, I think Fitz made Libby's case.

Apparently we agree, that we got into hybrid "losse cannon" territory because Comey and Fitz realized Fitz was statutorily ineligible to be appointed a real special counsel.

[clarice]

oops--"LoOse cannon"

[Javani]

Hi all.

Daily Kos has parts of a speech JW gave in Talahassee. --

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/3/25/0382/50871

He said--

"The neocons need to be forced back into the dark holes from which they crawled. They are nothing but parasites who serve nobody and nothing but themselves who are using the Republican Party as a serving host"

How interesting JW invokes Nazi anti-semitic imagery for the "neocons". Innocent coincidence? Can Libby use it, esp. because his call to Russert, supposedly, was to complain about crypto-anti-semitism in dishing out the "neocon" meme?

[clarice]

Yes, Javani--We discussed it last night--I think on the Jason Leopold thread. Isn't that a repulsive speech?

[maryrose]

Javani:
Yes I hope this hate speech can be brought in along with the Hardball reference as to why Libby was calling Russert. OOPs Wilson did it again! He just can't help himself but we've got him in the cross-hairs.

[Javani]

I agree. Also existing is the EPIC speech (cant find it now) where Joltin' Joe flat out said Gulf War II was set out to serve Israel's interests.

Reviewing the Arab Engish press, i've read them ascribe the war to various theories, never, or rarely, that it was about Israel. So even they have more credibility than Joe.

I remember Joe talking in that speech about bringing down Blair and Bush. I never could understand why in the "push back" the Bushies never pointed out Joe's position in the fledgling Kerry campaign at the time.

[Javani]

If you google "neocons parasites" you'll find a surprise...the populizer of the neocons as parasites allegation is none other than Scott Ritter!

Birds of a feather. Like Joe thought Iraq had WMDs, but used slippery words at other times to pretend the opposite.

[JM Hanes]

Javani

"the populizer of the neocons as parasites allegation is none other than Scott Ritter"

Now that's what I'd call a fascinating link.

[clarice]

Ritter was also a featured player in "Uncovered" the anti war film sponsored by Soros in with Wilson and Beers were the co-stars:

Directed by: Robert Greenwald.
Produced by: Robert Greenwald, Kate McArdle, Devin Smith.
Featuring: David Albright, Robert Baer, Milt Bearden, Rand Beers, Bill Christison, Kathleen McGrath Christison, David Corn, Philip Coyle, John Dean, Patrick Eddington, Chas Freeman, Graham Fuller, Mel Goodman, John Brady Kiesling, Karen Kwiatkowski, Patrick Lang, Dr. David C. MacMichael, Ray McGovern, Scott Ritter, The Rt Honorable Clare Short, Stansfield Turner, The Honorable Henry Waxman, Thomas E. White, Joe Wilson, Colonel Mary Ann Wright, Peter Zimmerman.
Researcher/associate producer: Jim Gilliam.
Editor/associate producer: Chris Gordon.
Lead editor: Kimberly Ray.

[topsecretk9]

Wilson is a rhetorical plagiarist.

[topsecretk9]

a.k.a. the NeoLib Cabal

[JM Hanes]

Aren't these pretty much the same folks who complain about the Great Right Wing Conspiracy?

[JM Hanes]

Wilson is an Ambassador to France wannabe.

[kim]

JM, he would be there now if Kerry hadn't dumped him. Look at the strength of his meme.
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[JM Hanes]

I'd love to have been a fly on the wall during that conversation, wouldn't you?

[clarice]

JMH, You are wicked..

[topsecretk9]

JMH

Looks like a mistrial on the PF-Ryan Trial

or ripe for an appeal

[kim]

JM, I think they understood each other perfectly; they are similar birds. They are sociopaths.
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[topsecretk9]

There is some difference of opinion on Jury background checks, but I do think it is more common than that 1st article suggests

here is an Opinion on that too:

"Chicago-Kent College law Professor Richard Kling found it "absolutely astonishing" that neither the U.S. attorney's office nor the defense team did additional background checks on the jurors. "Even in state courts, they do it inevitably," he said."..

...But some said the legal fiasco could eventually be ammunition for the defense. "No matter what happens, all of this will be used as a base for an appeal if there is conviction," said John Marshall Law School acting Dean John Corkery.

[clarice]

Other stories on the case indicated IIRC thaqt the jury wasn't getting along anyway, that they'd deliberated unsuccessfully for 8 days and that they didn't understand the jury instructions, wanted a lot of testimony read back to them, etc...It doesn't look good no matter what happens.

[kim]

I notice that the word 'prosecutor' was used 11 times in that article, that the role of a prosecutor to prevent this sort of problem was discussed, yet the name of The Prosecutor was not mentioned.
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[clarice]

HEH! I still want to know why the LATimes article on the slip up on the classified docs in the Holy Land case disappeared from the net and can't be found in the LAT archives.

[clarice]

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11954.htm It was grabbed here, in case you want it.

[topsecretk9]

yet the name of The Prosecutor was not mentioned.

Yes Kim, only ABCnews (that I've seen) has so far:

U.S. District Judge Rebecca R. Pallmeyer's three-paragraph note to jurors did not mention the possibility of a mistrial in the five-month trial, which has cost the government and defense millions of dollars.

But the presence of U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald, awaiting word in a hall while trial attorneys met with the judge in chambers, underlined how seriously the government was taking the problem.

Jurors were in their eighth day of deliberations Thursday."

JIC- Here is the ABC Link, but looks like you read this, so sorry if redundant

http://justoneminute.typepad.com/main/2006/03/jason_leopold_k.html#comment-15346726

[topsecretk9]

Sorry if anyone has seen --this--, but this is a expose on Fitz' team, for insight...for some reason after reading this I am even more convinced of the assessments, and Woodward threw their (SP group) whole case worldview in to disarray,

Does anyone else?

[topsecretk9]

of the assessments- JOMers consensus assessment

[clarice]

ts--That's an interesting article. The most interesting bit is in the last sentence:Fitz has never before tried a case in DC,probably the most sophisticated court inthe country on these kinds of matters.

[topsecretk9]

Clarice

You'll love this...me thinks reportes read blog more than they think (and *maybe* are appalled when one of their stories might be of interest to Cons for all the wrong reasons)

LA Times Air-brushing

[topsecretk9]

more than we think, I menat

I WISH THEY'D TAKE OUR ADVICE THOUGH - ::WINK::

[clarice]

I read Mickey everyday --why shouldn't the LAT? Niters...

[topsecretk9]

trivia?

"David Burnett’s striking photo in Time’s “Persons of the Year” issue of Joseph Wilson and Valerie Plame turns out to have been an outtake of an earlier photo shoot. The photo should have been of Wilson solo, but, as Plame recalls, one of the couple’s children wandered into the frame; she got caught by the camera when she raced in to scoop up the youngster. Burnett held off on using the photo because of Plame’s cloaked identity, and it resurfaced only as she became a more public figure...."

[Kate]

I not a photography expert but it sure doesn't look like Valerie is racing anywhere in that picture.

In fact, the picture looks carefully posed. Wasn't it someone on this board who uses the quote about Val sitting in the corner quietly...

Lots of effort to maintain the allusion that Val in circumspect, when in fact, she is not at all.

[clarice]

My latest is up--it's long--http://americanthinker.com/articles.php?article_id=5362

[Sue]

Top,

Where's the youngun she raced in to scoop up? No youngun in that picture.

[maryrose]

More lies about the Wilsons. Why am I not Surprised.

[topsecretk9]

--Burnett held off on using the photo because of Plame’s cloaked identity, and it resurfaced only as she became a more public figure...."--

There is something peculiar with this statement...she wasn't cloaked as of Vanity Fair, so?

[Sue]

I don't know what to make of it. But while looking for the date of the photo shoots, I found this interesting tidbit. You guys probably have already read it, but if I have, it is as if it is news to me. ::grin::

Plame also mingled unobtrusively last month at a party at the home of The Washington Post's Ben Bradlee and Sally Quinn. But there has been an invisible bubble around her as reporters have respected the desire of "Jane Bond," as Wilson calls her, to remain in the Washington shadows.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A29782-2003Dec2?language=printer>WaPo

[Sue]

Or this

Even before the president's budget director parked his motorcycle outside the front door, there was an only-in-Washington feel to the Sunday night sendoff of NBC News White House correspondent Campbell Brown, on her way to New York and Today show stardom.

At the buffet at Brown's home in Adams Morgan, former ambassador Joseph Wilson IV waxed indignant about the perfidies of the senior administration officials who he believes leaked the identity of his CIA-agent wife, Valerie Plame Wilson. … The buzz, though, focused on a shy and attractive blonde who sat nibbling finger sandwiches and discreetly introduced herself only as 'Valerie.'

http://www.slate.com/id/2091907/>Weird

[topsecretk9]

I wondered if the photo shoot was for Coopers "War on Wilson", doubt it but would not surprise me in the slightest.

[maryrose]

The statement in the WAPO article"Plame herself immediately thought the leak was illegal" This statement sets up their entire meme-from the get-go, Val felt put upon.

[Sue]

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1115/p01s04b-uspo.htm#timeline>CSM Timeline of Plamegate

[Sue]

The VF photo shoot was on November 8, 2003. I'm trying to find the date of the Times photo shoot. Do you know?

[Sue]

http://bop.nppa.org/2006/still_photography/winners/NPP/61532/118317.html>Source

Former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, his wife, Valerie Plame, is in the background, at home, Washington D.C., October 2003

[topsecretk9]

Sue

Good job,

--Val felt put upon.--

keyword.

[topsecretk9]

thought the leak was illegal

[topsecretk9]

thought vs know

[pollyusa]

Steve Clemons at The Washington Note has confirmed the essential points through a source close to Rove, of an article out today at Rawstory.

Karl Rove, Deputy White House Chief of Staff and special adviser to President George W. Bush, has recently been providing information to special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald in the ongoing CIA leak investigation, sources close to the investigation say.

According to several Pentagon sources close to Rove and others familiar with the inquiry, Bush's senior adviser tipped off Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald to information that led to the recent "discovery" of 250 pages of missing email from the office of Vice President Dick Cheney.

snip

According to one source close to the case, Rove is providing information on deleted emails, erased hard drives and other types of obstruction by staff and other officials in the Vice President's office. Pentagon sources close to Rove confirmed this account.
Rawstory 3/27/06

[Sue]

It's about damn time someone brought this story back to Rove.

[clarice]

Put every cent you have on Half Baked and RUN to Tradesports ....

[clarice]

In the meantime I have to put my faith in this:
In a comment to RAW STORY late Sunday evening, Robert Luskin denied any deal between Rove and Fitzgerald's office.

"Mr. Rove has cooperated fully with Mr. Fitzgerald's investigation," Rove's attorney said. "We have not and will not comment on the nature or substance of any communications with the office of the special counsel."

"That said, there is no basis whatsoever to the matters you allege that Mr. Rove has related," Luskin added.

[MJW]

Reading "The Washington Note," it appears what was confirmed was that Rove helped locate the missing e-mails, which is perfectly in accord with Rove's claim from the beginning that he was cooperating with Fitzgerald's investigation. I find it interesting that the confirming sources were in the Pentagon. That at least to suggests that e-mails may be related to that department. If so, it seems unlikely they concerned Plame.

[MJW]

I meant: That at least suggests . . .

Seems like everytime I revise the wording of something, I somehow mess it up.

[kim]

A stylized version of that photo will appear on a theatre poster for the announcement of the opening of the grand opera, Janus Plamus.
============================

[Rick Ballard]

MJW,

I've found that just screwing it up initially and hitting 'Post' is a real timesaver. Preeviw is for sisssies anyway.

[clarice]

kim, I once tried to write this whole thing up as a comic opera and finally had to give it up--someone better--maybe Steyn could do it,,

[kim]

I know you can pose and photoshop anything, but if that photo really is candid, there are grand pathologies adrift.
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[kim]

Take a look at his face.
==============

[kim]

Look at what he is doing. Reduced to tossing red meat to moonbats on the wing. What did your Daddy do in the War?
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