Scooter Libby won a decision against Time and Cooper, which doesn’t bode well for the other media outlets and personalities facing subpoenas or Fitzgerald:

A federal judge on Friday ordered Time magazine to turn over documents for a White House aide to use in his defense to perjury and other charges in the CIA leak case.

The order by U.S. District Reggie B. Walton also said the New York Times might have to turn over some information but reduced the scope of documents the newspaper and other news organizations would have to provide to lawyers for the defendant, former top vice presidential aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby.

All was not perfect for Libby because he did lose out on some important leads regarding who else might have been talking to the media before he talked to them.

Citing a lack of relevancy, Walton said that Judith Miller, a former Times reporter, doesn’t have to provide two notebooks, her phone records or appointment calendars to lawyers for Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff.

And Andrea Mitchell seems to have bought herself some breathing room – but that may not last.  Matt Cooper, key witness for Fitzgerald, is another one of Fitzgerald’s core witnesses succumbing to credibility problems:

During that review, Walton said, he found “a slight alteration between the several drafts of the articles” Cooper wrote about his conversations with Libby and the reporter’s first-person account of his testimony before a federal grand jury.

“This slight alteration between the drafts will permit the defendant to impeach Cooper, regardless of the substance of his trial testimony, because his trial testimony cannot be consistent with both versions,” Walton wrote.

With Grossman and Cooper facing credibility issues, and Fitzgerald now admitting Plame was never discussed with Miller during her first two meetings with Libby and having doubts about her ever being discussed, Fitzgerald is losing the foundation of a perjury case rapidly.  The problem is, the reporters and Libby all have vague and inconsistent recollections, even when faced with their notes of the day.

So how is it Libby’s lack of total recall is perjury and everyone else’s isn’t?  I am guessing this case might not make it into court.  Depends on how stubborn Fitzgerald is.