Posted on 05/05/2006 1:21:35 PM PDT by Republican Red
Lewis Libby defense lawyer Theodore Wells told a federal judge a short time ago that the Libby defense team has located “five witnesses who will say under oath that Mr. [Joseph] Wilson told them his wife worked for the CIA.”
Wells said he expects that prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald will call Wilson himself to the stand to rebut those accusations.
Today's hearing concerning what evidence Fitzgerald is required to turn over to the Libby defense team turned into an extended discussion of whether jurors will be allowed to assess Joseph Wilson's credibility vs. that of the administration as it concerns the reasons the U.S. went to war in Iraq. Prosecutor Fitzgerald told the court, "We don't want to try the war. The courtroom is not a reasonable place to try the war. Judge Reggie Walton seemed to agree, saying, "I'm not going to let this case end up being a judicial examination of the legitimacy of the war."
In the hearing, prosecutor Fitzgerald suggested that he would offer the Libby defense team some proof that Valerie Plame Wilson's status at the CIA was classified. But as he had said earlier, Fitzgerald again said, "We will not offer any proof of actual damages" caused by the revelation of Plame's identity, although Fitzgerald said "the issue of potential damage will come up several times" in the trial.
ping
When/if Wilson is called to the stand by the prosecutor, mustn't the defence be allowed to test his veracity?
Can't wait!
mark my words... "NOT A FRIGGIN CHANCE" as long as Fritz running the show. SIGH...
That said, this is a screwy case. They are trying Libby for a truly miniscule side issue, and either the jury realizes that issue is nonsense, or they decide to convict Libby for having a poor memory and mistating a peripheral point.
I thought this was over. We all know that there was no "leak" and the only thing the prosecutor is going after is a charge of "lying to the prosecutor". So why is the "leak" still being discussed, especially now that Valerie Plame is shopping a book?
ping
ROFLMAO........Joe Wilson has already issued a statement about what Libby said today in the courtroom!
And once again he has said that Fitz has said repeatedly that there was a conspriracy to attack him and Valerie!
Her book deal numbers are going up!
So if Wells puts five people on stand to say Wilson outed his wife, how would that affect the charge? I must be dense but that's not the charge against Libby.
I don't get this whole Plame Game...The Wilsons had a media openhouse at their residence before the Novak story was published. How can they claim the Administration outted her if they had reporters over for 4th of July bar-be-que?
Here's the Pincus story which describes the Media Openhouse at the super spook's home. Published on July 6th, 2003.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0706-05.htm
"Last week, Wilson said of Hussein: "I'm glad the tyrant is gone." But he does not believe the war was ever about eliminating Hussein's weapons of mass destruction. It was, he said, a political push to "redraw the map of the Middle East."
While his family prepared for a Fourth of July dinner, he proudly showed a reporter photos of himself with Bush's parents. On a den wall was a framed cable to him in Baghdad, from the first President Bush, dated Nov. 20, 1990:"
Why would you need to lie about "outing" somebody who has already outed themselves by actively meeting with the media?
This whole affair has been disgusting. You also had her appearing with Wilson in a sports car photo, obviously made up to look like she was a spy. But most egregiously, she sent Wilson on the mission, then allowed him to repeatedly, publicly lie about the result so as to undercut the war effort. She had a duty to resign and set teh record straight, but instead she obviously was in on the whole charade. The exact OPPOSITE of the appropriate behavior for someone at the CIA.
Wilson's statement should annoy Fitzgerald if Fitz has any integrity. Wilson is taking a statement out of context. I notice that he did not deny he blabbed to 5 people, so they didn't pick a very good punishment, did they?
True...They overtly engaged the media after the Novak story. My point is they were quietly engaging the media before this whole kerfluffle.
Had the Administration confronted them with the truth early, Joe would be a disgraced liar. The Clinton War room would have ground him into hamburger.
I hear what you're saying and agree but Fitz is charging him with lying and is not backing off. I would think Fitz would drop the charges if all Libby had to do was show Plame had already been outed.
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