New Libby Material

[The UPDATE is a must read for Plamaniacs].

We have a new 13 page opinion [and the HTML version].  The subject seems to be is the ex parte submissions by Fitzgerald (I have read just one page and dinner calls...)

MORE:  Here is the Order - the defense request is granted in part and denied in part.

After a quick skim of both, I see no bombshells.  But see below for a flinig from Fitzgerald which cites Bush and Cheney.

UPDATE:  The late bird gets the worm - Josh Gerstein of the Sun reports on a late thirty page response on discovery by Fitzgerald which slipped past my early evening stake-out.  From the Sun:

Bush Authorized Leak to Times, Libby Told Grand Jury
New York Sun Web Exclusive

A former White House aide under indictment for obstructing a leak probe, I. Lewis Libby, testified to a grand jury that he gave information from a closely-guarded "National Intelligence Estimate" on Iraq to a New York Times reporter in 2003 with the specific permission of President Bush, according to a new court filing from the special prosecutor in the case.

The court papers from the prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, do not suggest that Mr. Bush violated any law or rule. However, the new disclosure could be awkward for the president because it places him, for the first time, directly in a chain of events that led to a meeting where prosecutors contend the identity of a CIA employee, Valerie Plame, was provided to a reporter.

Read it all, including the point that we don't know what the President knew that prompted his involvement, and Libby's poetry on the final page.

There are other interesting snippets in the response.  From p. 7 of the .pdf, we get a bit about the conspiracy to respond to discredit Joe Wilson, and about the alleged Sept 2003 comment by Colin Powell that "everyone knows" that Ms. Plame was at the CIA :

Some documents produced to defendant could be characterized as reflecting a plan to discredit, punish, or seek revenge against Mr. Wilson. The government declined to produce documents relating solely to other subjects of the investigation, even if such documents could be so characterized as reflecting a possible attempt or plan to discredit or punish Mr. Wilson or Ms. Wilson. The government has no knowledge of the existence of any notes reflecting comments by former Secretary of State Powell regarding Ms. Wilson during a September 2003 meeting.

As to prospective witnesses:

Because the government does not intend at this time to call three of these individuals – Mr. Tenet, Mr. Hadley, and Mr. Rove – defendant is not entitled to discovery based on the need to prepare to cross-examine those individuals.

Very interesting - Rove is virtually named in the indictment as having told Libby that Novak was about to publish a column on Wilson.  One might think that is he is not being called, it is because his own problems are still in play.  And what about Hadley - wouldn't similar logic apply?

[Let George do it?  If Murray Waas is correct, he will be useless for the prosecution - see "The Loosening Noose" far below]

P. 19 - Get Dick!:

At some point after the publication of the July 6, 2003 Op Ed by Mr. Wilson, Vice President Cheney, defendant’s immediate superior, expressed concerns to defendant regarding whether Mr. Wilson’s trip was legitimate or whether it was in effect a junket set up by Mr. Wilson’s wife. And, in considering “context,” there was press reporting that the Vice President had dispatched Mr. Wilson on the trip (which in fact was not accurate).

Developing (I have to take a break).

And more on Cheney:

Defendant further testified that on July 12, 2003, he was specifically directed by the Vice President to speak to the press in place of Cathie Martin (then the communications person for the Vice President) regarding the NIE and Wilson. Defendant was instructed to provide what was for him an extremely rare “on the record” statement, and to provide “background” and “deep background” statements, and to provide information contained in a document defendant understood to be the cable authored by Mr. Wilson. During the conversations that followed on July 12, defendant discussed Ms. Wilson’s employment with both Matthew Cooper (for the first time) and Judith Miller (for the third time).  Even if someone else in some other agency thought that the controversy about Mr. Wilson and/or his wife was a trifle, that person’s state of mind would be irrelevant to the importance and focus defendant placed on the matter and the importance he attached to the surrounding conversations he was directed to engage in by the Vice President.

MORE:  Either Andrew Sullivan can't read, or he can't write:

Bush Nailed

We have a missing link. No, I don't mean the post-fish. I mean the Bush connection in the Plame leak. It turns out that, according to Libby, it was the president who first sanctioned the leak of the NIE data to discredit Joseph Wilson. Money quote:

..."Defendant testified that the vice president later advised him that the president had authorized defendant to disclose the relevant portions of the NIE," the prosecution filing said.

Emphasis added to what will surely become the rave-up lefty talking point.  However, as Mr. Gerstein noted, and as the excerpt printed by Mr. Sullivan makes clear, we *don't know* what Cheney and Bush discussed before Bush authorized the partial disclosure of the NIE.  President Bush may have been vitally interested specifically in discrediting Joe Wilson; he may not have heard the name, and simply authorized the disclosure to help with the White House side of the press coverage.  That said, Bush's involvement preceded the July 8 meeting with Judy Miller, (p. 19/20 of .pdf), which is not great news.

So, was "Bush Nailed" for helping with a White House PR pushback?  I'll bet he gets involved with White House message management pretty regularly.

TECHNO-NOTE: The Sun Also Sets, or at least, their site is down as of 11:25 AM ET.  I blame Andrew and the Christy Hardin Smith of the firegals.  That said, the Sun does provide a link to Fitzgerald's filing.

THE LOOSENING NOOSE:  Murray Waas covers the story and tells us this about Cheney and Tenet:

Cheney told investigators that he had learned of Plame's employment by the CIA and her potential role in her husband being sent to Niger by then-CIA director George Tenet, according to people familiar with Cheney's interviews with the special prosecutor.

Tenet has told investigators that he had no specific recollection of discussing Plame or her role in her husband's trip with Cheney, according to people with familiar with his statement to investigators.

Hmmph - without Libby to testify that Cheney ordered him to leak Plame's name, or even Tenet to testify that Cheney knew Plame was covert, Fitzgerald is going to have to perform magic to Get Dick.

Comments

[topsecretk9]

Willem
It is confounding, isn't it?

Cecil, I wasn't aware there was any issue with the NIE back in June when Armitage was blowing Plame's cover with Woodward. I also wasn't aware that any given fact can play one and only one role in the world for all eternity.

Forgive me if I am putting words in your mouth, but I could swear you have insisted that there was and has always been an issue with the the Intel all that way, way back when Armitage was blowing her cover, after all it was only a few weeks? later that Libby met with Miller.

[topsecretk9]

You act as if Fitzgerald told you Bush authorized Libby to leak information about Plame.

Sue, you are right he does *ACT* that way, which a not characterizing the position of another at all.

[Jeff]

topsecret - What I mean is, I don't think anyone has yet claimed that the NIE played a role in the conversations where Armitage blew Plame's cover. The larger point doesn't strike me as something that should be that controversial: Libby disclosed info from the NIE and disclosed info about Plame as part of the same strategy. That's all. I'm certainly not claiming that because Libby participated in a somewhat fishy disclosure of parts of the NIE that necessarily means there was some parallel process (Cheney to Bush to Cheney to Libby, or whatever) with regard to Plame. It appears not. But to try to divorce what we've just learned about Libby's conduct vis-a-vis the disclosure of parts of the NIE to Miller and Libby's disclosure of Plame info to Miller is just the merest Cecilian literal-mindedness taken to extremes simply to discount a problematic point.

[Jeff]

You act as if Fitzgerald told you Bush authorized Libby to leak information about Plame.

Why? Just because I think this is big and interesting news? I think you're just being defensive. And on the contrary, if anything I think this was all another Cheney-driven enterprise, with Bush not even fully realizing what he was participating in. I mean, if they wanted the damn thing declassified, why not just ask Bush to declassify it? Why ask Bush to approve disclosure, compelling Libby to go to his pal Addington to get expert legal opining that Bush's approval amounted to declassification? Why shouldn't and wouldn't Bush just have been unambiguous about it?

As I said earlier, the question of whether Bush might have authorized or directed Libby to leak about Plame appears to be answered in the negative. For a while, I was thinking that Libby's point about the NIE being authorized for disclosure was meant to suggest that he was or threatened to argue at any trial that he had been authorized also to release info about Plame, thereby negating the very possibility of charges regarding the disclosure of classified info etcetc. But evidently not, at least as far as Bush is concerned. But there's always Cheney.

[topsecretk9]

hit refresh, TM has a new post.

[MayBee]

JHM-
Siem Riep it was. It was indeed spectacular, and amazing that it was found so relatively recently. I couldn't help imagining how the experience of going to Siem Riep and seeing Ankor Wat and Ankor Thom will be in a few years.

[maryrose]

Jeff:
" Somewhat fishy disclosure from the NIE report." What the heck are you babbling about now? THE PRESIDENT IS ALLOWED TO DECLASSIFY ANYTHING FOR ANY REASON SO SHUT DOWN THAT INANE ARGUMENT. Libby was AUTHORIZED to SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT TO COUNTER WILSON's LIES! Get your facts and your head on straight.

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