Squeeze Play

by digby

Murray Waas is reporting:


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.


Here's the skinny:


In the fall of 2003, when it was disclosed that the Justice Department had begun a criminal probe as to who leaked Plame's identity to reporters, Libby sought out Cheney to complain that while then-White House spokesperson McClellan was making public statements that Rove had not been a source of the leak, McClellan refused to do the same on Libby's behalf.

Asked by Fitzgerald whether during that conversation Libby might have in fact told Cheney that he had spoken to reporters about Plame, Libby answered: "I think I did. Let me bring you back to that period. I think I did in that there was a conversation I had with the vice president when all this started coming out and it was this issue as to, you now, who spoke to Novak.

"I told the vice- you know, there was- the president said anybody who knows anything should come forward or something like that... I went to the vice president and said, you know, I was not the person who talked to Novak.

"And he [said] something like, 'I know that.' And I said, you know, 'I learned this from Tim Russert.' And he sort of tilted his head to the side a little bit and then I may have in that conversation said, I talked to other -- I talked to people about it on the weekend," Libby said in apparent reference to his conversations with Cooper and Miller.

Fitzgerald then pressed Libby: "What did you understand from his gesture or reaction in tilting his head?"

Libby responded: "That the Tim Russert part caught his attention. You know, that he- he reacted as if he didn't know about the Tim Russert thing or he was rehearing it, or reconsidering it or something like that... New, new sort of information. Not something he had been thinking about."

Fitzgerald asked: "And did he at any time tell you, 'Well, you didn't learn it from Tim Russert, you learned it from me? Back in June you and I talked about the wife working at the CIA?'"

"No," Libby responded.

"Did he indicate any concern that you had done anything wrong by telling reporters what you had learned?" Fitzgerald asked.

"No," Libby responded.

Later, Fitzgerald asked Libby: "Did you tell the vice president that you had actually spoken to Time magazine and Mr. Cooper and had discussed Wilson's wife's work with Mr. Cooper?

Libby answered: "I think this conversation was about whether -- the leak to Novak. I don't know that I discussed that with the vice president. I did tell him, of course, that we had spoken to the people who he had told us to speak to on the weekend. I think at some point I told him that."

Libby had been frustrated that in recent days that McClellan had made statements saying that Rove had nothing to do with the leak of Plame's identity, but refused to do so for Libby as well. Libby then pressed his case to then-White House chief of staff Andy Card, but to no avail himself until Cheney intervened.

An agitated Cheney wrote in a note to himself: "Not going to protect one staffer + sacrifice the guy who was asked to stick his neck in the meat grinder because of the incompetence of others." Cheney also scribbled: "Must happen today."

Some time later -- Libby wasn't able to provide the grand jury with the exact date -- he went back to Cheney to tell him that he discovered a note indicating that he had first learned from Cheney, not Russert, that Plame was a CIA officer.

Libby told the grand jury: "In the course of the document production, the FBI sent us a request for documents, or Justice Department, I'm not sure technically. In the course of that document production I came across the note that is dated on or about June 12, and the note... shows that I hadn't first learned it from Russert, although that was my memory, I had first learned it when he said it to me.

"And so I went back to see him and said, you know, I told you something wrong before. It turns out that I have a note that I had heard, heard about this earlier from you and I just -- you know, I didn't want to leave you with the wrong... the wrong statement that I heard about it from Tim Russert. In fact, I had heard about it earlier, but I had forgotten it."

Asked by Fitzgerald what Cheney's reaction was, Libby responded by saying that Cheney hardly had anything at all:

"He didn't say much. You know, he said something about, 'From me?' something like that, and tilted his head, something he does commonly, and that was that."



Read the whole article for a very nice, succinct rundown of the evidence Fitzgerald presented against Libby as well as this very interesting speculation.

I have no idea if Libby will turn on Cheney or if Fitzgerald will follow through with an obstruction investigation. I do not believe he will bring charges against Cheney unless he has a solid case.

I've heard some wags say recently that some former special prosecutors believe Cheney was lucky to have a "conservative" running this case because they would have named Cheney as an unindicted co-conspirator. I don't know if that's true, but it brings up something important about Patrick Fitzgerald that's sometimes missed. He's conservative but not in a discernably political sense. It's because he uses his office with prudence and circumspection. That's not to say he isn't tough or that he doesn't play hardball -- his cases in Chicago are almost frightening in their methodical thoroughness. But he isn't a partisan either left or right (or if he is, it doesn't seem to show itself in his work.)

I would love nothing more than to see Dick Cheney indicted on an obstruction charge, but I'm glad to know that Fitzgerald is not the type of prosecutor who would bring flimsy charges, even against that dark eminence. The typical right wing partisan prosecutor has been a blight on our system for a long time, railroading innocent people and using racist "tough on crime" platforms to launch political careers. (Can you hear me Rudy?) Fitzgerald is a true conservative in the literal sense and that's a very good thing when it comes to police powers. I wish there were more real conservatives in law enforcement and judicial system. We'd have a safer and more just society if we did.



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