Jan 31 2007
Fitz’s Folly V
Sorry for the light posting – lots of work. Some comments on Ari Fliescher before we leave him and move onto the other witnesses. As I said before Ari is the perfect foil to Libby. He felt he had done something wrong, and resisted testifying, got a lawyer, etc. He acted guilty, even though in the end it was more panic than guilt. He talked to reporters. He passed on news about Plame to them. He joines Armitage as being someone who DID leak Plame’s identity but did not get prosecuted. Jurors may suspect the government, but they absolutely fear lawyers and prosecutors. They are getting a good view of prosecutorial obessession. There is no reason to prosecute Libby when he had nothing to do with Novak’s unveiling of Plame’s CIA job. And there is no need to give immunity to Armitage and Fleischer and go after Libby – unless Libby was really on a vendetta. But the defense is establishing quite clearly he was not. And they do it with a myriad of little things – like this:
J[effress] Up until that time ,you hadn’t said anything about her. But after that you said it to two reporters on the side of the road.
Fl[eischer] There was one other event that made it relevant.
J But that’s true, right, that you told two reporters on the side of the road.
J Goes to Libby conversation. This lunch had been set up once before, set up and postponed. It wasn’t set up after Wilson’s article. It was set up, he asked you to go to lunch bc he knew you were leaving, you had never had lunch with him. All your meetings on the fringe or outside meetings.
Prosecutors tried to make a big deal out of a lunchtime discussion between Libby and Ari regarding Plame – like it was some response to the news. It was the only time they ever had lunch, prosecutors noted. But then we learn the lunch date was a rain check, not initiated because of the bombastic Wilson (cannot wait to see Plame and Wilson on the hot seat). But that is how, piece by piece they are destroying the prosecution’s case, by destroying their reputation for honesty with the jury. Juries don’t like to be misled.
What is stunning with Ari and Bartlett is they are admitting to putting on a PR push with the press, and at that time Ari was freely telling reporters about Plame:
J Your recollection of when you talked to these reporters was when. This event at 4 is after that event. Shortly after 3:00, shortly after 8:00 (AM) EST. Was there a third reporter?
Fl Tamara Lipper, Newsweek.
Fl my recollection is that she had walked off. Gregory and Dickerson.
J They were asking you questions. How did the information get in your speech, Bush was asked. Were the reporters asking you questions.
Fl No I volunteered it. Talking about bad week at WH, Why going after DCI Tenet, What I recall, in large part that report on CBS, plus the fact that I had heard it from two Admin officials, so I volunteered it.
J Clear memory of another conversation with Gregory.
Fl I remember Gregory saying what a terrible last week it was. I remember saying to Mr. Gregory, “If it wasn’t this crap, it was some other crap.”
…
J Did these reporters have telephones?
Fl on the airplane? Yes.
At least a little after 8 in the morning EST both of these reporters knew from you that Wilson’s worked at CIA.
…
J Did you and Bartlett have a discussion about reaching out to reporters. We talked about that CBS report. We should find out who else is writing this story. I said we should get this out to everyone we talk to about Tenet.
Fl I called Pincus at WaPo, I think I called someone at NYT. I can’t recall what Bartlett did.
J Is it a fact that you and Bartlett agreed to contact several print and media journalists. Ari NYT and Wapo and Bartlett the Sunday talk shows.
J You did meet with the FBI on June 10 2004. Did you tell the FBI that Bartlett was going to contact the Sunday talk shows.
Fl I don’t recall who I said he was going to call.
J One of the Sunday talk shows would be MTP. Who is the NBC correspondant?
Fl Correspondant? Anchor is Tim Russert.
J Walter Pincus–can you say what area he writes in?
Fl I called him bc, WH reporters taht covered this story. I was working off of who was covering the controversy. I knew he wasn’t on the trip, so I could reach him.
J Did you tell Pincus that Wilson’s wife worked at CIA.
Fl nossir. I would have remembered it if it happened.
That last one sounds like Jeffress is letting Ari hang himself a bit. But whatius clear is Bartlett and Ari did what their job is to do – reach out and communicate their side of events to the press. The jury must be wondering how those acts were ‘legal’ and Libby’s weren’t and needed to be covered up. More later on Judith
It is to the point with me where I look at our media reports much like people in Russia must have viewed TASS two decades ago. This entire episode is nothing more than a scandal created from whole cloth by a media carrying water for the DNC. At this point I have pretty much stopped paying attention to it. There was no crime, Plame wasn’t in an undercover position and it wouldn’t have mattered who told who when.
Great Post AJ. Byron York at National Review has a great article today on Judy Millers testimony Tuesday. And Just One Minute also has some good stuff. Rush just mention how all the MSM is mis-reporting this trial. No Surprise there!
I think that’s the bottom line. Juries expect the defense to put on its best possible case, to be argumentative in favor of their position, etc. They will tolerate that from the prosecution, as well, but any whiff of unfairness, doubledealing or shading the truth on the side of the prosecution and most juries will develop strong negative reactions.
sooth, have you been asleep for the past two years? The CIA has been at war with this President for quite a while. Which is why Porter Goss had to go in and clean out the Queen Bee leaker…who leaked to Dana Priest…whose husband is a serious America-hater, imho.
As I said before, Comey and Fitz make an interesting pair. Our government is full of them…And Armitage was a republican…who absolutely disobeyed a Presidential order THREE times.
And it was Comey that expanded Fitz’s power in this when they KNEW there was no crime commited by Libby…I wonder why?
Yeah, right. Comey, a life-long Republican – could actually get into law schol – unlike George the Chump. The reason he expanded Fitzgerald’s powers was to prevent a corrupt Alberto Gonzales from putting in the fix.
Deputy Attorney General James B. Comey
President George W. Bush nominated Jim Comey to serve as Deputy Attorney General; he was unanimously confirmed by the Senate on December 9, 2003, and the President signed his commission on December 11, 2003. Prior to becoming Deputy Attorney General, Mr. Comey served as United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York from January 2002 to the time of his confirmation. From 1996 through 2001, Mr. Comey served as Managing Assistant U.S. Attorney in charge of the Richmond Division of the United States Attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Mr. Comey was educated at the College of William & Mary (B.S. with Honors 1982, Chemistry and Religion majors) and the University of Chicago Law School (J.D. 1985). After law school, he served as a law clerk for then-United States District Judge John M. Walker, Jr. in Manhattan, and worked for Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in their New York Office. He next joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, where he worked from 1987 to 1993, eventually serving as Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division.
As United States Attorney, Mr. Comey oversaw numerous terrorism cases and supervised prosecutions of executives of WorldCom, Adelphia, and Imclone on fraud and securities-related charges. Mr. Comey also created a specialized unit devoted to prosecuting international drug cartels.
As an Assistant United States Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia, he handled the Khobar Towers terrorist bombing case, arising out of the June 1996 attack on a U.S. military facility in Saudi Arabia in which 19 Airmen were killed. He has personally investigated and prosecuted a wide variety of cases, including firearms, narcotics, major frauds, violent crime, public corruption, terrorism, and organized crime. In the Southern District of New York, he served as lead prosecutor in United States v. John Gambino et al., a six-month mafia racketeering and murder trial in 1993.