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Libby Update: Protecting Karl Rove?
Scooter Libby's lead defense attorney has sent the media into full-throated scandal mode with his opening statement this morning, alleging that Libby was "sacrificed" by top White House officials in order to protect Karl Rove. Here's MSNBC's coverage from a little earlier:
Most of the sizzle comes from the disclosure of a note written by Vice President Cheney that he was “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.”
OK, so the "staffer" was Rove and the poor meat-ground guy was Libby, who was Cheney's point man for hitting back against Joseph Wilson's allegations that the administration had knowingly lied about Saddam Hussein's alleged attempts to procure nuclear materials.
But here's what we don't get yet about the defense's theory of the case, as TPM Reader LG puts it: "while it may be true that the [White House] was trying to hang Libby out to protect Rove, this in no way absolves Libby from charges of perjury and obstruction of justice. How is that a defense? Seems like just a smokescreen to me."
Comments (56)
Frederick wrote on January 23, 2007 5:04 PM:If this is true, why isn't Libby accepting a plea bargain. I
mo-lama wrote on January 23, 2007 5:06 PM:can't believe he's willing to take the heat for these guys,
unless he will have a large deposit made into an offshore account after he gets out.
He's not accepting a plea bargain because he's been promised a presidential p-a-r-d-o-n.
mo-lama wrote on January 23, 2007 5:07 PM:he didn't go for the plea bargain because he's been promised a presidential pardon.
Sylvia wrote on January 23, 2007 5:12 PM:I think it's a huge tactical error. Libby's defense is "I forgot." Now your lawyer says Rove and the WH is out to dump this on you. No one could ever forget that. This "defense" infact provides a motive for Libby to lie--i.e. they are trying to dump this on me and I won't let them. Also, now the media is on fire and this is much higher profile than it may have been otherwise. Big mistake. Now we have this story a few hours from the SOTU with the Pres at 28% and the vultures circling around the VP and Rove. Not a good day for the defense or the administration. Score one day for Fitzgerald.
Hermagoras wrote on January 23, 2007 5:17 PM:Pardon seems likely.
JL wrote on January 23, 2007 5:18 PM:After the prosecutions strong opening, I thought the defense did a brilliant job of deflecting the blame. If you look at the division of the defense statement, it involved blame Rove, blame the faulty memory of reporters and then blame the faulty memory of government employees. For good measure, it was mentioned that Libby has a poor memory so he's not responsible. I think that the blame Rove was a warning in disguise, that simply meant that I'm not going down alone.
Mark F. wrote on January 23, 2007 5:27 PM:"He's not accepting a plea bargain because he's been promised a presidential p-a-r-d-o-n."
Speaking of presidential pardons, how much time do you suppose any of our recently-convicted Republican friends will actually spend in jail?
Crust wrote on January 23, 2007 5:38 PM:Wow, according to Digby (http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2007_01_01_digbysblog_archive.html#116957751746718548):
"Norah O'Donnell is asking Andy Card and Leon Panetta if the president is going to have to ask Dick Cheney to resign as a result of what's being alleged at the Libby Trial. (They both punted.)"
As Atrios put it, Norah O'Donnell (!).
Joe Buck wrote on January 23, 2007 5:42 PM:I don't think that Libby's conduct is consistent with a man who is expecting a pardon. If he really expects Bush to make things all better, then why is he having his lawyer attack "Bush's Brain", Karl Rove?
Looks to me like maybe Libby's decided to turn on his old bosses to save his own skin.
gg wrote on January 23, 2007 5:58 PM:"If I go down, you come with me...or at least, I'll try"
Libby should have known better...Dart Vader Dick NEVER reaches out for whomever "falls" of the ship.
It's just "friendly fire" Scooter...
insider wrote on January 23, 2007 6:14 PM:"Dog Eat Dog"
RAD wrote on January 23, 2007 6:14 PM:NY Times reports that defense was that Rove was crucial to the survival of the Republican party.
So...
1. The survival of the Republican Party depended on protecting a lawbreaker? Sounds like ethics as usual.
2. Rove wasn't necessary to protect the Republicans; he was needed to save G.W.B.--which in the end, could destroy the Republicans for a generation. In the long run, it would have been better for the whole country had Rove been pinned with this.
Unmitigated Audacity wrote on January 23, 2007 6:40 PM:Yeah, baby. Put some popcorn on and pull up a sofa. This promises to be a humdinger of a trial. I have tended from the beginning to think of this prosecution as a flank opened by the remaining sane forces around the institution of the Presidency (not the Bush Administration, of course, but the people who make up the institution of the presidency - former prez's, former advisors, retired diplomats and military, etc.) to force Cheney out, or cripple him before he can start a shooting war with Iran. God, I hope this is true and successful or else we are going to war again, sure as shit, and that way lies a disaster for the entire world.
ohiomeister wrote on January 23, 2007 7:55 PM:Hmm...Libby was the one who allegedly lied to the feds and the grand jury, so he's the only one on the hook for that. I don't see how anyone put him through the meat grinder or hung him out to dry; if the allegations are true, he hung himself with his own rope.
Awesome that it comes on the day of the State of the Union. Hope the talking heads all bring that up tonight after the SOTU. We shall see.
SteveGinIL wrote on January 23, 2007 8:48 PM:It may be naive of me, but I see the Libby trial as a door-opener for Fitz, to establish things in court to be so, as a stepping stone to bigger trials later. In his Illinois activities, he nailed perp after perp, so it won't stop after this one trial.
If the earlier defendants like Libby want to do the "no honor among thieves" thing, Fitz isn't going to stop them. Fitz goes for the big boys, but only after the small fries are taken care of and allowed time to sweat and buckle.
No one else indicted yet? I know. That Rove thing is still out there (though everyone thinks Jason Loepold was on something rather than onto something). Fitz is methodical and thorough, and I take it on faith and his history that he has a plan.
If Libby wants to give Bush a reason not to pardon him, all to the better. Libby might be a nice stoolie, given the right motivation. Nice of Bush to abandon him...
David wrote on January 23, 2007 8:52 PM:There's no way Scooter Libby, long-time right-hand-man to Cheney, perhaps the most powerful man in the world, is acting without the VP's approval. All those Republican donors who contributed to Libby's defense fund wanted to keep the White House and GOP untainted by scandal. Too late, certainly, but that was their goal. This is akin to the NH phone-jammer defense bills being paid by GOP campaign committees - protect the big players at all costs.
What motivation would these people have to support Libby? It has to further their interests. How does it do that? Well, there are no more elections for Rove to win. After the midterms, he's clearly useless for national campaigns. Think about it from Cheney's perspective - this idiot who couldn't deliver Congress is no longer useful. But an all-around trooper like Libby, loyal to Cheney at every turn, has years of service behind him and probably a few more left. Time to throw Rove overboard. Who would stop him? W? Look at him. The President is W can't stop an anti-war resolution in the Senate - can he really stop Cheney from doing whatever he wants? Could he ever?
hope_bob wrote on January 23, 2007 10:22 PM:And when the dust clears and Cheney resigns, we'll be looking at newly appointed VP Rice and utter a collective "wha?!?"
paul wrote on January 23, 2007 11:04 PM:Turdblossom and his bestest pal George just cost the the republican party control of congress and the immunity from investigations that went with it. If this can be hung on a lame-duck president with no chance of furthering any agenda in the next two years and a political advisor who's made a lot of republican enemies as well as democratic ones, then maybe (in Cheney et al's fevered imagination) the "grownup" wing of the party will be able to weasel out of trouble.
parrot wrote on January 24, 2007 12:24 AM:I think paul makes a good point. What is really interesting is will one of the House committees look into the allegations arising from the trial that Rove and others hung Libby out to dry? I think that would throw a little more kindling on the upcoming long, hot summer for the Bushites...
Anonymous wrote on January 24, 2007 9:13 AM:Received this email from Salon this am.
Far as I know they have not written to me before.
"Scooter's tragic innocence
By Nick Bromell
http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2007/01/24/scooter_libby/index.html
- - - - - - - - - - - - Wed Jan 24 04:07:33 2007
came from IP: 70.122.248.61"
Something smells fishy. Any comment goes direct to Technorati.
Joel Mael
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