[SE Mom]

EXACTLY- that is absurd, isn't it?

[Erik Latranyi]

What is most disturbing here is that we still do not know if Valerie Plame was a covert agent or not.

Fitzgerald has not addressed that issue.

That should have been his first act....determine if the statute covers Valerie Plame. If not, this should have stopped right there. No subpoenas for reporters' notes, no grand jury, etc.

This is another example of a prosecutor that keeps extending the bounds of his investigation until he finds a "gotcha".

[palmer]

Cooper: "I lay on my bed, naked, wet, smelling like chlorine, talking to Libby"

Miller: "I lay under the aspens, the sunshine filtered by their leaves, connected by their roots, talking to Libby".

I wonder what Russert will have to say?

[wideminded]

And this is supposed to be damaging to Libby?

EXACTLY- that is absurd, isn't it?

Libby is not being indicted for revealing anything about Plame. He is being indicted for lying about his conversations with reporters to both the FBI and the grand jury. The prosecutor evidently feels that these were intentional misstatements rather than being due to poor recollection.

From the indictment:

2. On or about October 14 and November 26, 2003, in the District of Columbia,

I. LEWIS LIBBY,
also known as “SCOOTER LIBBY,”

defendant herein, did knowingly and willfully make a materially false, fictitious, and fraudulent statement and representation in a matter within the jurisdiction of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, an agency within the executive branch of the United States, in that the defendant, in response to questions posed to him by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, stated that:

During a conversation with Matthew Cooper of Time magazine on July 12, 2003, LIBBY told Cooper that reporters were telling the administration that Wilson’s wife worked for the CIA, but LIBBY did not know if this was true.

3. As defendant LIBBY well knew when he made it, this statement was false in that: LIBBY did not advise Cooper on or about July 12, 2003 that reporters were telling the administration that Wilson’s wife worked for the CIA, nor did LIBBY advise him that LIBBY did not know whether this was true; rather, LIBBY confirmed for Cooper, without qualification, that LIBBY had heard that Wilson’s wife worked at the CIA;

In violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1001(a)(2).