Posted on 02/03/2006 8:01:14 AM PST by LouAvul
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A federal judge on Friday set former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's trial date in the CIA leak case for January 2007, two months after the midterm congressional elections.
The trial for Libby, who faces perjury and obstruction of justice charges, will begin with jury selection January 8, said U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton. Walton said he had hoped to start the trial in September but one of Libby's lawyers had a scheduling conflict that made an earlier date impractical.
Walton said he does not like "to have a case linger" but had no choice because Libby attorney Ted Wells will be tied up for 10 weeks in another case.
Libby, formerly chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, stopped for coffee and made small talk with reporters as he headed to a conference room on the second floor of the courthouse. Walton scheduled the hearing in part to determine what progress was being made in the case.
Libby, 55, was indicted late last year on charges that he lied to FBI agents and a federal grand jury about how he learned CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity and when he subsequently told reporters.
Plame's identity was published in July 2003 by columnist Robert Novak after her husband, former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson, accused the Bush administration of twisting intelligence about Iraq's efforts to buy uranium "yellowcake" in Niger. The year before, the CIA had sent Wilson to Africa to determine the accuracy of the uranium reports.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Sorry. I cited the source as the Sacbee. It's actually CNN. Would you be so kind as to change it, please? Thanks.
This non-story isn't going to end until the blame is on Bush's doorstep.
Well so much for a speedy trial.Must be a wacko judge.
From NRO:
"SCOOTER LIBBY'S 2007 TRIAL DATE [John Podhoretz]
Maybe some of our lawyers can help me out here, but it seems to me that with such a long lead time, the odds that the case collapsing before trial or Libby securing an acquittal just grew exponentially. Collapse: Because the discovery process will be so long and full of classified twists and turns that prosecutor Fitzgerald may have no choice but to withdraw his case. Acquittal: Because the more distant the trial is from the June-July 2003 events that led to the indictments, the easier it will be for Libby to argue convincingly that he couldn't possibly remember whom he talked to and when. Even though Libby will be making that argument in relation to testimony taken a year after the events, the time gap for the jury will help make his case."
http://corner.nationalreview.com/06_01_29_corner-archive.asp#089242
After the Nov 06 election I see!
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