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.
Is O'Donnell back on his meds?
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.
This guys mouth is always two days ahead of his brain.
I noticed that he did not mention the other names who spoke with Cooper.
Excuse me. O'Donnell didn't break any news. What O'Donnell did was tell a lie.
Rove just needs to adopt the Berger defense: "accidentally" stuff all memos, etc. into your pants...
That was my first thought, and I agree.
Lying Larry is in protege tuam pugam mode.
Of course he broke no laws. He did not blow her cover. If he had, though, he would have broken a law.
The source, most likely, is a well liquored Joseph C. Wilson IV.
He's playing "CYA".
In other words he's doing damage control...the "creepy liar".
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.
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.
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.
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