So is Arlen Spector. You want some more?
Posted on 11/16/2005 11:07:47 AM PST by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON - Vice President Cheney's former top aide, indicted last month on perjury and obstruction charges, reviewed documents Wednesday at a federal courthouse.
Accompanied by his legal team, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby walked into the courthouse without the crutches that he'd been using during a court appearance two weeks ago when he pleaded not guilty to charges stemming from the CIA leak investigation.
Libby's visit to the courthouse came hours after The Washington Post reported that at least one senior Bush administration official — who was not identified — told editor Bob Woodward about CIA operative Valerie Plame about a month before her identity was publicly exposed.
The newspaper reported that Woodward told Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, who is investigating the leak of Plame's identity, that the official talked to him about Plame in mid-June 2003. Woodward and editors at the Post refused to identify the official to reporters other than to say it was not Libby.
Mark Corallo, a spokesman for Karl Rove's legal team, said Rove was not the official who talked to Woodward. Rove is a top deputy to President Bush and was referred to, but not by name, in Libby's indictment, as having discussed Plame's identity with reporters.
Libby was indicted last month on one charge of obstruction of justice and two counts each of false statement and perjury in connection with Fitzgerald's investigation.
Plame's husband, former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson, had criticized U.S. intelligence efforts before the Iraq war. On June 23, Libby told New York Times reporter Judith Miller that Wilson's wife might work at the CIA. Robert Novak, in a column published July 14, identified Plame, as a CIA operative.
Woodward's testimony in a two-hour deposition Monday would mean that another White House official told a reporter about Plame before Libby revealed her identity to Miller. A spokesman for White House adviser Karl Rove told the Post that Rove did not discuss Plame with Woodward.
William Jeffress Jr., one of Libby's lawyers, told the Post that Woodward's testimony raises questions about his client's indictment. "Will Mr. Fitzgerald now say he was wrong to say on TV that Scooter Libby was the first official to give this information to a reporter?" Jeffress said.
Woodward, famous for his investigation with Carl Bernstein of the Watergate scandal during the Nixon administration, is now assistant managing editor of the Post. In October, he was dismissive of the outing of Plame, telling CNN's Larry King that the damage from her exposure was "quite minimal."
Meantime, The Associated Press on Wednesday joined other news organizations in asking U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton to deny a court motion by Fitzgerald for a blanket protective order keeping all pretrial evidence in Libby's case out of public view.
The special prosecutor is seeking a court order that would prohibit Libby and his legal team from publicly disclosing "all materials produced by the government."
Not out of the realm of possibility! Both him and Powell were not on board with the president.
Bill Burkett. Doesn't get more reliable than that.
So is Arlen Spector. You want some more?
I understand that; but the very fact that he didn't take a golden opportunity to trash the Bush administration should tell you something.
Bob Woodward was given unprecedented access to President Bush directly and to more than 75 senior White House officials for both of his best selling books "Plan of Attack" and "Bush at War."
No other author or reporter has had the White House access of Bob Woodward in fact no one else even comes close.
"The newspaper reported that Woodward told Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, who is investigating the leak of Plame's identity, that the official talked to him about Plame in mid-June 2003."
"Woodward's testimony in a two-hour deposition Monday would mean that another White House official told a reporter about Plame before Libby revealed her identity to Miller."
We somehow made the leap from "official" to "White House official"...
Anything to keep from reporting on Able Danger --a REAL story.
Did you see him on Larry King the night they had on two senators, Woodward and one otherperson who escapes me right now.. the Dem Senator started giving a lot of 'hype' on the case, Woodward reached in his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper (saying he was prepared for this) showed the senator; who promptly said nothing more on the subject. Now, I'd really like to know what was on that piece of paper!
I don't 'think' Armitage is a friend of this administration, I doubt he'd do anything to help them... in this case I think the lead was to try to help... I just hope it wasn't Cheney.
Fitz will still go after Libby for purjury.
I read about it here on FR. They had a thread with the transcript. It was the actual report the senator was "ahem" mistating from. It was a riot.
Woodward has been quite the oppositional devil lately. And I don't think the libs can touch him because he knows where all the bodies are buried.
I think it was Leaky Leahy
Wonder if Repubs on Hill have given him more than a 'second thought' since his indictment.
Agree with your 'satisfaction' here; feel the upside here as well; not to mention the WaPo getting some real dirt on their face and publicly.
We have more than spin to observe here. . .we can watch them squirm.
That said.. .I STILL want Woodward to get his just deserts here.
I know. . .when Berger's socks are washed and dried . ..
This is what happens when you investigate what people 'say happened' instead of what happened.
I don't suppose Ol' Paddy Fitzgerald is ready to cut to the chase yet and admit that revealing the identity of a CIA office pogue is legally meaningless?
"Woodward's testimony in a two-hour deposition Monday would mean that another White House official told a reporter about Plame before Libby revealed her identity to Miller."
We somehow made the leap from "official" to "White House official"...
That's literary license. aka 'The Mapes Standard'
No question as to the MO and 'why' of this entire leak myth. . .
The Dems are masterful propagandists. . .but then; they have to be. . .
What is pathetic is that the Repubs make the Dems efforts so worthwhile. . .
Again, this clown Fitzgerald spent millions of taxpayers' dollars(fattening his bank account) and wasting two years investigating what any "beat cop" in America could have determined in a day...
Ms. Valerie "001" WAS NOT A COVERT AGENT!
next case...
We all felt this was an attempted coup by the CIA. Why not George Tenet?
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