Judge Walton's latest opinion foreshadows the dramatic national security issues that engaged I. Lewis Libby during critical phases of the Plame case. Matt Apuzzo of the AP has coverage; a link to the opinion is here (38 page .pdf).
My impression is that the two sides have whittled the pile of classified info down to a reasonable size, and that this will not be the reason the case founders.
AN AP excerpt:
Libby plans to testify that he had other, more weighty issues on his mind and simply misspoke or forgot when interviewed by the FBI and the grand jury.
Among those issues were the 2003 rise of Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, a diplomatic crisis in Turkey, the ousting of Liberian President Charles Taylor and the role of the Iraqi military after the fall of Saddam Hussein.
And ley us not deny Judge Walton his fun:
Walton said he tried to balance national security concerns with Libby's right to a fair trial. The judge stressed that pre-approving classified evidence "requires a court to play the role of Johnny Carson's character Carnac the Magnificent by requiring it to render rulings before knowing the exact context of how those rulings will coincide with other evidence that has actually been developed at trial."
Shouldn't that be a Jon Stewart reference? His age (and mine) is showing.
...The government does not intend to introduce these articles for the truth of the matters asserted, id. at 1, but rather, only for the limited purpose of demonstrating that the defendant had a motive to make the statements to the media representatives that form the basis for the charged offenses.
--only for the limited purpose of demonstrating that the defendant had a motive--
I do believe this conflicts with the SP's timeline on Judith Miller...for the motive would have to occur after July 6th., and Libby did not talk to Novak and he only confirmed what Cooper suggested to him - according to Cooper.
Anyways..my point still stands. How does Fitz prove that ambiguous and anti-septic questions scribbled on a news article mean a "double-super secret" code to retaliate if he does not call Cheny?
My guess, is Fitz put that in there to bait the defense into calling Cheney...my guess is the defense knows this and will not call Cheney.
Posted by: topsecretk9 | December 16, 2006 at 03:05 AM