Sep 21 2006
Did Libby Judge Show Fitzgerald The Exit?
I have always suspected that the Judge in the Libby case was rapidly loosing confidence and trust with Fitzgerald as his terribly weak and completely misguided case came clearer and clearer. The Armitage news basically scuttled the entire case because the leaking of Valerie Plame’s indentity, wife of Joe Wilson serial liar and Kerry campaign activist, is now not related to the case at all! So did the judge send a signal to Fitzgerald that an exit door was now being proferred? Some might easily think that is the case:
The judge in the CIA leak case ruled Thursday that if Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald feels that admitting certain classified documents at the upcoming trial of I Lewis “Scooter” Libby can jeopardize national security, Fitzgerald can then move to dismiss the perjury charges against Libby.
Was it a face saving move or a warning? I think it was a warning if anything. Judge Walton seems to be exasperated with Fitzgerald and his lame, thin excuses. It has become clear in oral arguments that Fitzgerald hyped his case beyond any reasonable expectations. His witnesses do not back up his claims and two (Grossman and Cooper) have credibility problems that even Fitzgerald has even stipulated. We shall see, but Scooter Libby should not let Fitzgerald off the hook. Right now the best way to get his reputation back is to win the case or have Fitzgerald release all his information (i.e., produce a report) for public scrutiny.
AJ, your take seems to be entirely reasonable. Reading the article, at least, it seems clear that Walton is applying pressure to Fitzgerald. Walton has his own reputation to consider, and recent revelations have probably impressed upon him that it won’t be enhanced by allowing Fitzgerald to lead him down a garden path. In fact, he is probably painfully aware that Fitzgerald is simply not to be trusted.
Still and all, I would greatly prefer to see Libby vindicated outright by, say, the judge dismissing the case based on a defense motion for summary judgment. The judge is probably playing it safe. He’ll first give Fitzgerald a way out. But Fitzgerald may well wonder what may come next: the judge is also signalling–as you indicate–his increasing exasperation.
Then what will happen to the Wilson’s lawsuit if such events as you described take place?
The Wilson lawsuit has it’s own issues, they are coming up against some procedural limitations of not having served notice on the people they are opposing. If they don’t get off the dime, it could die on the vine.
Just as a side note, Fritz is also having to work two other cases I am aware of, Conrad Black and the Illinois government corruption scandal.
Wonder how well he can multitask especially if this goes to trial when major milestones will be hitting on those parrallel tasks at the same time.
elendil and AJ, do you really think so? I thought this was a creative interpretation by a reporter, reflective of the press’ desire to just have this go away before their role is more closely scrutinized.
If so, that would be delightful.
Clarice
I was playing with search engines and blogsphere search sites the other night to see how much pickup had been done on your efforts. It was major from what I have seen.
With that searching , a point of collateral damage is I came upon a site with you and your husbands picture and the accomplishments of your offspring.
I won’t give it up to general publication, but I salute you and your family.
But I will say that when my wife was alive, we made it a point to attend at least a few times a year that music related event you were connected with because of the quality it represented.
Lady you multitask well and all with quality results!
My hat is off to you and your family.
Thank you very much Merlinos.
The case against Libby should never have gone forwrd if any evidence could not be presented. He should have dropped the charges in this case. Any fan of Perry Mason knows this.
I JUST found one of the follow on posts that I commented about in an earlier thread about how there was one guy who was VERY well researched.
This is the AT LEAST 3rd, I think it was actually the 3rd ping I got on free republic, and whoever it was that asked “wicked? was it fedora?” and now I know for sure, the answer is “YES!”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1526045/posts
Fedora had a lot of posts, never arrogant, largely rough drafts looking for plausibility, but I think the one that I listed just now, was Fedora being confident in their work.
CRIMINY! a loudmouthed snark like me got a LOT of pings, took me nearly 20 minutes, most of them are based on my appology about calling the writer of the “Narnia” books a pedophile, when I meant that the “Alice in Wonderland” writer was.
Anyways, Whoever you were, I will seek it out now, you were right, it was Fedora, who ever that cat is, they are friggen thorough, a little extreme in supposition, but the research is AMAZING!