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Lawrence O'Donnell: No Crime in Plame Case
NewsMax ^ | July 4, 2005

Posted on 07/04/2005 7:11:53 AM PDT by MikeJ75

MSNBC commentator Lawrence O'Donnell, who broke the news Friday that notes taken by Time magazine's Matthew Cooper indictate that top Bush advisor Karl Rove leaked the name of CIA employee Valerie Plame to columnist Robert Novak, said Sunday it's likely that Rove broke no laws.

Rove's lawyer, Robert Luskin, acknowledged on Saturday that his client had indeed spoken to Cooper before the Novak column hit in July 2003. But Luskin insisted that Rove never revealed Plame's identity.

Speaking to WABC Radio host, Internet guru Matt Drudge late Sunday, O'Donnell noted: "What [Luskin] has said is very careful lawyer language. . . We live in a world where we have to discover, in the 90s, that there are people who aren't sure what the meaning of 'is' is."

The MSNBC talker posited:

"That could simply mean he did not use the words 'Valerie Plame.' He may have said [Joseph] Wilson's wife, for example. He may have said all sorts of things that still fit what we're talking about."

But even if Rove was behind the disclosure, it doesn't mean he broke any law, he argued.

"[Luskin] is insisting that Karl Rove did not commit a crime," O'Donnell told Drudge. "That may very well be the case."

The MSNBC talker said he had studied extensively the statute allegedly broken in the Plame case, concluding that is "a very difficult statute to violate."

For one thing, he said, "Perhaps [Plame] really wasn't a covert agent - doesn't fit the statute's definition of covert agent. I think that's possible."

Another factor that could mitigate allegations of an illegal disclosure, said O'Donnell, was that whoever revealed Plame's identity "would have had to intentionally disclose it knowing that the CIA is trying to hide it.

"Karl Rove may not have known that," he added.

If indeed Rove was behind the disclosure: "All [of the above] would add up to the fact that no crime was committed in the transmission of this information by Rove to Cooper," O'Donnell said.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Extended News; Government; US: District of Columbia
KEYWORDS: cialeak; creepyliar; plame; rove
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1 posted on 07/04/2005 7:11:53 AM PDT by MikeJ75
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To: MikeJ75

Is O'Donnell back on his meds?


2 posted on 07/04/2005 7:13:29 AM PDT by nuconvert (No More Axis of Evil by Christmas ! TLR) [there's a lot of bad people in the pistachio business])
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To: nuconvert

This smells like pre-spin because the papers (hopefully) will finger a dem leaker. So now it's no crime, no big deal, nothing to see here.


3 posted on 07/04/2005 7:17:39 AM PDT by neodad (I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast, for I intend to go in harm's way)
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To: MikeJ75

This guys mouth is always two days ahead of his brain.


4 posted on 07/04/2005 7:17:57 AM PDT by BallyBill (..the only quagmire I see is the one the Media is stuck in..)
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To: neodad

I noticed that he did not mention the other names who spoke with Cooper.


5 posted on 07/04/2005 7:19:49 AM PDT by mware ("God is dead" -- Nietzsche........ "Nope, you are"-- GOD)
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To: MikeJ75
Lawrence O'Donnell, who broke the news Friday that notes taken by Time magazine's Matthew Cooper indictate that top Bush advisor Karl Rove leaked the name of CIA employee Valerie Plame

Excuse me. O'Donnell didn't break any news. What O'Donnell did was tell a lie.

6 posted on 07/04/2005 7:19:49 AM PDT by alnick ("I will continue to be guided by the advice that matters." GWB 6/28/05)
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To: MikeJ75

Rove just needs to adopt the Berger defense: "accidentally" stuff all memos, etc. into your pants...


7 posted on 07/04/2005 7:19:50 AM PDT by Thom Pain
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To: neodad
<>i>This smells like pre-spin because the papers (hopefully) will finger a dem leaker. So now it's no crime, no big deal, nothing to see here.

That was my first thought, and I agree.

8 posted on 07/04/2005 7:20:40 AM PDT by Judith Anne (Thank you St. Jude for favors granted.)
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Lying Larry is in protege tuam pugam mode.


9 posted on 07/04/2005 7:23:42 AM PDT by A.A. Cunningham
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To: MikeJ75
The smell of burning rubber as O'Donnell does a 180. Naturally O'Donnell makes a U-turn on July 4th when everybody will see it in print, yeah right.
10 posted on 07/04/2005 7:25:40 AM PDT by hflynn
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To: nuconvert
"Is O'Donnell back on his meds?"

If so, probably administered by dart gun.
11 posted on 07/04/2005 7:25:53 AM PDT by Bring Back Old Sparky (Teddy Kennedy: Drink! Drive! Swim for your life!)
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To: MikeJ75

Of course he broke no laws. He did not blow her cover. If he had, though, he would have broken a law.


12 posted on 07/04/2005 7:27:09 AM PDT by Brilliant
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To: neodad

The source, most likely, is a well liquored Joseph C. Wilson IV.


13 posted on 07/04/2005 7:27:27 AM PDT by A.A. Cunningham
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To: nuconvert

He's playing "CYA".

In other words he's doing damage control...the "creepy liar".


14 posted on 07/04/2005 7:28:04 AM PDT by GOP_Proud (...stumbling across Bill Bennett on the radio is like bumping into Socrates at Starbucks.-K.Parker)
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To: summer

Lookie here. Seems Lassie O'Donnell led them to the wrong well. Again. One day he's gonna come barking with real trouble and no one is going to listen. He needs to be slapped with the newspaper and his nose rubbed in the crap he's created.


15 posted on 07/04/2005 7:29:44 AM PDT by small voice in the wilderness (Quick, act casual. If they sense scorn and ridicule, they'll flee..)
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To: MikeJ75
is this considered a back pedal?
16 posted on 07/04/2005 7:29:46 AM PDT by slowhand520
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To: MikeJ75

The "creepy liar" accused Rove of leaking Plame's identity to the press and has utterly zero evidence to back up his assertion. Now he acknowledges that no crime was committed, which means the memos will remain sealed grand jury evidence and his lies can't be exposed. Disgusting.


17 posted on 07/04/2005 7:30:59 AM PDT by advance_copy (Stand for life, or nothing at all)
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To: MikeJ75
Oh, the Rats are taking another sniff at the cheese, and having a second thought about it? No, in the end, they will try again and again because they cant help themselves.
18 posted on 07/04/2005 7:31:15 AM PDT by Pukin Dog (Sans Reproache)
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To: All

IF Joe Wilson actually leaked his wife's name, I wonder how likely it is he will actually be "frog marched to jail" like he wanted Rove to be?

I bet the MSM will be falling all over themselves to make excuses for this pampered playboy.


19 posted on 07/04/2005 7:32:41 AM PDT by Armedanddangerous (Zombies man.....they creep me out..)
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To: small voice in the wilderness
Seems Lassie O'Donnell led them to the wrong well....

ROTFLMAO! And, it seems like he read the thread we were on yesterday, and maybe got scared! ROTFLMAO...
20 posted on 07/04/2005 7:33:52 AM PDT by summer
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