Apr 20 2006
Fitz-Magoo Exposed In Time Filing
I know I show my age when use the Mr. Magoo moniker to describe the shortsightedness and tunnel vision of Fitzgerald’s ‘investigation’, but it is way too apt. Like the analogy of the blind men touching one part of an element to discern what it is, Fitzgerald did not investigate, he sifted and cherry picked evidence to support is preconception.
Thankfully, this shortsightedness is also Fitz-Magoo’s downfall. For eample, it is clear from the recent round of filings that Fitzgerald has in his posession many documents which outline the administration’s response to the Wilson lies, but also DO NOT relfect any coordinate effort to punish the Wilson’s or out Plame. Fitzgerald has only offered those documents to Team Libby which his twisted imagination feels tell the story he wants everyone to see. All contrary documents which do not support his imaginary world are ‘irrelevant’. The guy seems at times marginally psychotic.
Now we see in the recent filing by Time, Inc that Fitzgerald was very careful to only request information from Time for his Grand Jury which told the story he dreamed up, while allowing all sorts of potentiall exculpatory evidence to remain in the media’s self serving hands. First, note the establishment of two groups of documents concerning the Plame Game issue:
The requests encompass, for example, documents reflecting conversations between employees of Time Inc. about the Wilsons, or between employees of Time Inc. and their sources. The requests are not limited to documents concerning TIME magazine reporter Matthew Cooper–the sole Time employee identified as a potential witness in this case–but include communications to or from “any employee or agent of Time Inc.”
All emphasis added is mine. There are documents regarding Matt Cooper, and then there are those which do not involve Matt Cooper, but do relate to leaking Plame’s name!
Then the filing goes on to allude to what Fitzgerald asked for – and you guessed it – it only pertained to documents relating to Matt Cooper’s involvedment:
Mr. Libby has already received from the Special Counsel copies of the documents produced by Time to the Special Counsel in response to grand jury subpoenas. Mr. Libby also has Mr. Cooper’s published articles detailing his grand jury testimony. See Matthew Cooper,What I Told the Grand Jury, TIME, July 25, 2005, at 38; Matthew Cooper, What Scooter Libby and I Talked About, TIME, Nov. 7, 2005, at 42.
Time is stating Team Libby has the Fitzgerald documents and access to the two articles Matt Cooper wrote (duh!). So how does this compare with the initial two groups of documents established (Cooper and Non-Cooper)? Two sentences:
[1] The [Libby] requests are not limited to documents concerning TIME magazine reporter Matthew Cooper–the sole Time employee identified as a potential witness in this case–but include communications to or from “any employee or agent of Time Inc.”
[2] Mr. Libby has failed to show that he needs any other documents in order to defend himself, and the documents demanded by his subpoena have little if any relevance to the issues presented in this prosecution for perjury, false statements and obstruction of justice.
And again later, the filing is quite clear Fitzgerald only requested information that would hold up his house of cards, not information that would get to the bottom of what happened:
First, the subpoena demands documents that have little to no relevance to the allegations and issues in this case. For example, the requests are not limited to documents created or received by Matthew Cooper–most if not all of which Mr. Libby already has–and there is no reason why documents possessed by other reporters and editors would be relevant.
Well, well. It seems the only documents Time deems of relevancy are those associated with Matt Cooper, since he is the person mentioned in the indictment. In fact, it sounds like Fitzgerald ghost wrote the argument himself! Clearly Fitz only asked for Cooper related information, not information into his investigation of the Wilson/Plame issue – his original charter. And Time basically says the same thing:
Although Mr. Libby has claimed a right to know what information the press corps in general possessed concerning Mrs. Wilson’s affiliation with the CIA, under that theory he [Libby] would be entitled to subpoena all reporters in Washington to learn what they knew, and when they knew it.
Er,…Wasn’t that the point in all of this? And Time basically admits they have information in hand to answer these broader questions:
Documents concerning information possessed by Time reporters or editors other than Mr. Cooper can have no bearing on what Mr. Libby knew or said in those conversations and thus cannot be obtained by a Rule 17 subpoena.
When he subpoened the news organizations he clearly had ended that phase of his efforts. Which puts the lie to Fitzgerald’s claims for strong arming the media in the first case, and putting Miller behind bars. In one of Fitz’s misleading filings at the time he wrote:
In December 2003, the Department of Justice appointed United States Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald as Special Counsel to investigate the allegations that one or more Executive Branch officials unlawfully disclosed the name of a purported covert CIA operative, Valerie Plame.
Well, now we know Fitzgerald knew at this time (7/20/04) had given up on criminality in disclosing the name! And ig he wanted to understand the essence of the disclosure, he would have sifted through all possible disclosure scenarios. Obviously he did not.
So now we have Time exposing Fitzgerald’s fishing expedition and witch hunt. In their very own filing they exclaim what Libby wants is what was supposed to be Fitzgerald’s one and only job. And in doing so, realizing no legal resistance would be possible if Time had provided the material to Fitzgerald, Time uncovers the biggest crime in all of this.
What is more damaging to this country: learning Joe Wilson’s wife worked at the CIA or the mess of precedent Fitz-Magoo is piling up as he tramples the law and his own mandate? The man is a danger to our legal system.
See the tricky thing here is that Fitzy is charging Libby with perjury and all that. Now, a good element of that will be to show that he had a motive to lie. For him to have to have a motive, clearly you have to demonstrate that he was doing something he shouldn’t have done. So he’s basically having to prove that Libby did something wrong, without actually wanting to prove it since he knows he has no case.
Which is why you usually only succeed at perjury charges when they are MATERIAL to the case you are pursuing, which in this case, they are not.
The INR memo makes it clear as day what happened.
Wilson’s early leaks to the Times and the Post named both the CIA and the State Department as recipients of Wilson’s boondoggle mission, and that he had debunked the Niger forgeries at that time.
It seems as though both the State Department and the White House started to try and figure out just what in the hell was going on, and both wanted to make sure that everyone knew that Wilson was lying. The State Department didn’t want any part of this, since they were against sending Wilson, and were not briefed on his mission, as Wilson’s press leaks seemed to suggest.
So what does the State Department do? Leak to the press and say that Wilson’s mission was a boondoggle set up by his CIA wife.
The essence of the entire story is that it was the STATE DEPARTMENT who leaked Plame’s occupation to discredit Wilson, not the White House.
Funny, but true.
And now Fitzgerald is going after the White House, for what the State Department did, while protecting the State Department’s leaker.
Gotta love law and justice.
As much as I hate to think about it, I believe Rove will be indicted soon. There are many indications that he is directly under the scope of Fitzgerald. There is this story from http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/042006Z.shtml that indicates such. While I have never visited that site before today, I still believe there may be some serious truth to it.
Fitzgerald is a man on a mission I believe, and that mission is to take down anyone and everyone he can possibly take down in the WH. Sad thing though; the President and the GOP really do not need this right now. With Rove being stripped of some of his responsibility this week, this story from truth out seems eerily realistic. If this does happen, the crap will hit the fan in Washington I believe. I just wish Rove would step down if he and Luskin believe an indictment is around the corner.
I tell you one thing, the GOP may get by in November, but if this thing draws out over 07 and into 08, I can almost see this country tipping its hat to a Democrat in 08 because it will get really, really, dirty. Fitzgerald isn’t going to back away from anything. I believe that he thinks there is a serious conspiracy going on, and he just doesn’t seem like the kind of person to back away from a fight.
Per rush;
RUSH: “I’ll tell you what, if Novak is right and Pat Fitzgerald has known who leaked from the get-go here, then I’m right. Fitzgerald doesn’t want his case to be over something as small as something like perjury, so he’s going after the whole prewar intel as a crime. This is scary stuff.”
Scary stuff, indeed.
About Rove being indicted, be careful believing what you read. From The Corner at NRO:
“WHERE’S FITZ? [Byron York]
A left-wing website, citing “sources close” to the CIA leak investigation, reports that:
Just as the news broke Wednesday about Scott McClellan resigning as White House press secretary and Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove shedding some of his policy duties, Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald met with the grand jury hearing evidence in the CIA leak case and introduced additional evidence against Rove, attorneys and other US officials close to the investigation said.
The grand jury session in federal court in Washington, DC, sources close to the case said, was the first time this year that Fitzgerald told the jurors that he would soon present them with a list of criminal charges he intends to file against Rove in hopes of having the grand jury return a multi-count indictment against Rove.
The only problem, according to, well, sources knowledgeable about the investigation, is that Fitzgerald was in Chicago on Wednesday.”
I hope that I’m wrong, that is all I know. Fitzgerald is hiding much I believe, who is Novak’s original source as well as Woodward’s? People outside the WH I’m almost certain, so why is he targeting those within the WH, something gone terribly wrong here.
Just ran across this at the NRO;
http://corner.nationalreview.com/
The only problem, according to, well, sources knowledgeable about the investigation, is that Fitzgerald was in Chicago on Wednesday.
Hoping this is correct.
Yea, guess I could have looked at the source, Jason Leopold. Well, NRO was quick to catch him in his effort to spread more misinformation.
Well, then there is this too. I watched this last night and thought the official A thing is pretty damning.
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/04/21/msnbcs-shuster-signs-point-to-rove-indictment/
1. The latest court documents, for the first time, name Rove as a subject of the investigation.
2. The court documents go out of their way to say that Rove will not be called as a witness in Scooter Libby’s trial, even though Rove is a key part of the narrative. Shuster notes that this is done when prosecutors want to “leave open the possibility of later charging that particular subject in a separate case.â€
3. Rove is referred in court documents as “Official A.†Shuster says “in every single case we have found, Keith, that prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald when he designates somebody as Official A in an indictment, that person eventually does get indicted themselves.â€
Yep looks like the wheels are back in motion, not good. Rove should step down if he and Luskin believe an indictment is forthcoming.
“The grand jury investigating the CIA leak is scheduled to meet at 9:30 am ET.”
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/TheNote/story?id=156238