[Ninong]

This jury is taking forever. At this point, I wish they would take the rest of the week before bringing in a verdict. I would hate to see the Libby guilty verdict hog up all the TV news coverage on the same day that the fired U.S. Attorneys will begin testifying before Congress (starting Tuesday, March 6, at 2 p.m. ET).

Libby is charged with a total of five counts. I predict he will be found guilty, I'm just not sure about how many counts.

[Ninong]

I don't know if the entire jury is confused or just one or two holdout jurors but they sent the court three more questions about Libby's conversation with Matt Cooper. That makes five questions about the one charge. The court had to explain to them that Libby is charged with lying (false statement) to the FBI about what was said in his conversation with Cooper. That doesn't mean that they also have to find that he lied to Cooper.

That question is so incredibly stupid that it makes me believe it's coming from one or two holdout jurors.

Another question revolves around the fact that Fitzgerald charged him with lying about two separate conversations with Cooper on two different dates. The jury wants to know if they have to find him guilty of lying about both conversations. That's another no-brainer. If he lied about either conversation, he's guilty of lying (false statement) to the FBI.

Looks like they're nowhere near a verdict yet unless it's just a single holdout and those questions are the only ones left and all the other charges have already been decided. Of course, it could be that they haven't even gotten to all five charges yet.

[Ninong]

Guilty on Four Counts!

Libby was convicted of obstruction of justice, making a false statement and two counts of perjury.
Jurors cleared him of a second count of making a false statement.

Here.

Merry Fitzmas!

[Ninong]

Libby's attorneys are very disappointed in the jury's verdict and will be filing a motion for a new trial. That will fail, then they will file an appeal. That will fail. Then they will try to get Bush to pardon him without him having to admit guilt.

[zhenya]

Originally Posted by Ninong

Guilty on Four Counts!

Libby was convicted of obstruction of justice, making a false statement and two counts of perjury.
Jurors cleared him of a second count of making a false statement.

Here.

Merry Fitzmas!

That jury scared me there for a while... but they came through!

[Ninong]

Following are the individual charges and their corresponding verdicts:

• Obstruction of justice: GUILTY
• False statements to FBI investigators (Russert conversation): GUILTY
• False statement to FBI investigators (Cooper conversation): NOT GUILTY
• Perjury to the grand jury (Russert conversation): GUILTY
• Perjury to the grand jury (Cooper conversation): GUILTY

It looks like they had already reached guilty verdicts on all of the counts except the one about lying to the FBI about his conversations with Matt Cooper. They probably had a holdout on that one.

It's a stunning victory for Patrick Fitzgerald! Congrats!!!



P.S. -- Fitz is on TV right now doing his victory-lap news conference!

[Ninong]

Pelosi: Libby Guilty Verdicts Not Solely About Acts of One Individual


Washington, D.C. –Speaker Nancy Pelosi released the following statement today on the guilty verdicts in the CIA leak trial of former White House aide Lewis Libby:

“Today's guilty verdicts are not solely about the acts of one individual.

“This trial provided a troubling picture of the inner workings of the Bush Administration. The testimony unmistakably revealed – at the highest levels of the Bush Administration – a callous disregard in handling sensitive national security information and a disposition to smear critics of the war in Iraq.”

Here.

[schrocat]

Q: Whose Scooter's favorite Country singer?

A: Dolly Pardon

[zhenya]

Originally Posted by schrocat

Q: Whose Scooter's favorite Country singer?

A: Dolly Pardon

You think it could happen?

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by schrocat

Q: Whose Scooter's favorite Country singer?

A: Dolly Pardon

Yeah, that's why his attorneys are trying to push the sentencing date back and delay the appeals process. The court is allowing him to remain free until the process is exhausted. It should be easy for him to drag this out beyond the November 2008 elections, after which Dubya will pardon him. Whether he waits until his last day in office like Poppy and Bubba both did or not is the only real question. Poppy pardoned the Iran-Contra felons and Bubba pardoned a rich guy who was truly sorry he had screwed up and would be more than willing to pay a $100 million fine, to say nothing of the contributions his former wife was making to the Democratic Party and the new Bubba Library.

P.S. -- Speaking of presidential libraries, did you see where Dubya plans to spend $500 million on his? That works out to $100 million per book.

P.P.S. -- It's-a-small-world dept: The attorney who represented Marc Rich in his campaign for a presidential pardon was Scooter Libby!

[Ninong]

First, Valerie and Joseph Wilson would like to express their appreciation to Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald and the entire team of federal prosecutors for their professionalism and hard work. Their prosecution of a senior White House official illustrates that we are a nation of laws and that no man is above the law. The Wilsons respect the jury’s verdict and thank the jurors for their service. The entire Wilson team is pleased by today’s verdict and believes that justice has been served in this case.

The Wilsons will continue to pursue the civil case against Vice President Cheney, Mr. Libby, Mr. Rove and Mr. Armitage because it hinges on additional and different facts from those underlying the criminal case. The criminal trial was about whether or not Mr. Libby obstructed justice and committed perjury by lying to FBI agents and the grand jury about the fact that he had disclosed to reporters that Valerie Wilson worked for the CIA. The civil suit, on the other hand, hinges on whether or not the defendants violated the constitutional rights of Valerie and Joe Wilson by making those disclosures in a concerted effort to retaliate against Joe Wilson for revealing the falsity of the president’s rationale for the Iraq war.

Disturbing facts emerged from the criminal trial that are highly relevant to the civil case. For example, the American public learned details of how Vice President Cheney orchestrated the concerted White House effort to discredit and retaliate against Joe Wilson. Towards that end, the vice president enlisted the aid of other senior administration officials including former press secretary Ari Fleischer, vice presidential assistant Cathie Martin and presidential advisor Karl Rove. Testimony in the criminal case also confirmed that Mr. Libby spoke to numerous reporters in an effort to persuade at least one of them to publicly reveal Mrs. Wilson’s covert status.

Melanie Sloan, CREW’s executive director and counsel to the Wilsons, stated, “The civil case may provide the American public with its only opportunity to hear directly from Vice President Cheney, Mr. Libby, Mr. Rove and Mr. Armitage about what really took place behind the scenes after Joe Wilson exposed the truth about the administration’s justification for the Iraq war.”

[schrocat]

Originally Posted by Ninong

P.S. -- Speaking of presidential libraries, did you see where Dubya plans to spend $500 million on his? That works out to $100 million per book.

Talk about an unattended groundbreaking ceremony...

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by schrocat

Talk about an unattended groundbreaking ceremony...

As you may have heard, there is a lot of opposition from the Methodist clergy and SMU's faculty senate to the idea that SMU will be the site of George W. Bush's presidential library.

"...linking George W. Bush's presidency with a university bearing the Methodist name ' is utterly inappropriate.'"

Other universities that were vying for the 'honor' of hosting Bush's presidential library (e.g., the University of Dallas) have withdrawn their bids. The board of trustees at SMU is packed with fatcat GOP supporters of President Bush and they will likely ignore the opposition and go ahead with their plans to host the library anyway.

I don't know if there will be anything interesting left to house there now that Bush has signed an executive order giving all former presidents the right to withhold any presidential papers forever. That probably means that all of his Texas gubernatorial papers, that are hidden away in Poppy's library at Texas A&M, will never see the light of day either.

I doubt that historians will give much credence to the overall value of the collection considering that the president gets to decide (he's the Decider, remember?) which papers to save and which to shred. The Richard Nixon library is a complete joke. Rather than being a repository of presidential papers, it's nothing but a revisionist attempt to rewrite history and rehabilitate his reputation.

P.S. -- Why can't all presidential papers be housed at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. where they would be assessible in one place to serious historians?

The whole idea of each former president building a separate monument to his glorious reign reminds me of the pyramids in Egypt. I realize they're built with private donations but these people were elected servants of the people, they were not pharaohs. And Bush's people are already lining up mega-donations from corporations right now while he's still in office. The suggested donation is $10 million! Do you think companies like Halliburton, Bechtel or Lockheed Martin would refuse?

[Ninong]

As expected, the neo-cons are already pushing for President Bush to pardon Scooter Libby and the sooner the better. Their argument is that since the special counsel found no evidence of an underlying crime, Libby should never have been charged in the first place.

As Patrick Fitzgerald said at the time that he announced the charges against Libby, it was difficult for him to determine what had taken place because the people with intimate knowledge of what actually happened were lying and obstructing his investigation. One of those people has now been convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice.

Libby's defense misled the court into thinking that Libby would definitely be called to the stand and that Vice President Cheney would probably be called. When the defense informed the court that neither would be called, the judge was noticeably disturbed. He admonished the defense that his decisions on what evidence to let in were influenced by the defense's assurance that the defendant would be taking the stand in his own defense.

Anyone with half a brain can see why Libby and Cheney were not put on the stand. There is no way that either of them could have answered all of Fitzgerald's questions on cross without running the risk of additional perjury.

It is highly unlikely that Libby will flip now and provide Fitzgerald with any "new information." Why should he? All of his legal expenses are being paid by the neo-con fatcats. He will almost certainly be pardoned by Bush eventually, probably before he reports to prison. The trick now is to drag out the appeals process as long as possible so that he can stay free until after the November 2008 elections.

I saw Scott McClellan on Larry King Live last night. McClellan repeated his claim that he was assured by both Libby and Rove that they had nothing to do with the leak of Valerie Plame Wilson's name. He admitted that he was misled and that if he had known then what he knows now, he would not have made that statement. McClellan also said that he thinks it's time for the president to issue a full public statement on this situation instead of continuing to claim that they can't say anything until after the investigation is complete. Fitzgerald has stated that he doesn't expect to bring any new charges unless he receives "new information." The administration is now claiming that they can't say anything as long as the appeals process is still ongoing. That could take them right up to the end of Bush's presidency.

Remember this?

At an event at the University of Chicago on September 30, 2003, President Bush was asked about the investigation into the CIA leak. He answered:

Let me just say something about leaks in Washington. There are too many leaks of classified information in Washington. And if there is a leak out of my administration, I want to know who it is. And if the person has violated law, the person will be taken care of... I want to know the truth. If anybody has got any information inside our administration or outside our administration, it would be helpful if they came forward with the information so we can find out whether or not these allegations are true and get on about the business.

Again, in June 2004, Bush was asked by a reporter, "[D]o you stand by your pledge to fire anyone found to have [who leaked the agent's name]?"

Bush replied, "Yes. And that's up to the U.S. Attorney to find the facts."

P.S. -- Why has Karl Rove not been fired yet?

[almostdiva]

You think it could happen?

MOST definitely... he's setting the stage already. Making noised about being disappointed with the verdict.

Rebecca

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by almostdiva

MOST definitely... he's setting the stage already. Making noised about being disappointed with the verdict.

Rebecca

Rebecca,

It's Cheney who's "disappointed with the verdict." Bush is merely "sad for Scooter's family."

[Ninong]

The argument in favor of pardoning Libby immediately is to put an end to Fitzgerald's investigation before Libby has a chance to say anything that might implicate Cheney.

The argument against pardoning Libby now is that it might make matters worse for the Republican Party's chances in the November 2008 elections. As it stands right now, they think they have a chance to hold onto the White House and possibly regain control of the Senate.

I think it's too early to predict which political party will win the White House in 2008. Right now the Democrats look like they have a lock on it but a lot could happen between now and then and a lot depends on the candidates. We have no idea who the presidential nominees will be. We may know who the front runners are but that doesn't mean much at this early stage of the game. I would be shocked if Giuliani is nominated by the GOP and I am reluctant to say anything about the Democrats because the last time I predicted far in advance who they would nominate and why he would lose, they did and he did.

P.S. -- If Bush were to pardon Libby after the jury has entered a verdict and the prosecutor scrupulously followed the legal process, he would add more evidence to the historical record that he doesn't believe in the Constitution that he swore to uphold.

[schrocat]

Originally Posted by Ninong

...I am reluctant to say anything about the Democrats because the last time I predicted far in advance who they would nominate and why he would lose, they did and he did.

Agreed.
Keep that one to yourself man.

[Ninong]

OK, I realize it's a long shot, but what will Scooter Libby do to while away the time in prison while waiting to be named to Halliburton's board? Will they allow him to invite reporters over for lunch? Will they still be asked to source him as "a former Hill staffer?"

Maybe he'll write another novel? The New Yorker published a review of his literary masterpiece, The Apprentice, back in November 2005 but somehow or other it disappeared. That's odd. Not as odd as Scooter's book but strange nonetheless.

Thank goodness for Google cache. To celebrate Scooter's triumph in being found NOT GUILTY on one of the charges of lying to the FBI, I thought I would look up the review of The Apprentice and link it here just so we will all know where to find it the next time this topic comes up. Check it out. It's inspirational.

[wozza]

what the hell just read some of the highlighted bits from that link.
what it all about is that his book or did that actually happen, and why he was in court? im confused and disturbed by it all.