Posted on 10/26/2006 2:48:00 PM PDT by Laverne
WASHINGTON - Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald took on the first witness in the CIA leak case Thursday, dissecting an expert witness until she acknowledged errors and misstatements in her research.
Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, hoped the hearing would persuade a judge to let him call a memory expert at his obstruction and perjury trial in January.
At the outset of the procedural hearing, U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton indicated that he was not inclined to allow a memory expert to testify at the trial. Still, he allowed Libby's lawyers to present a witness to bolster their claim that memory experts would help in his defense.
When it came Fitzgerald's turn, the veteran prosecutor launched into a nearly three-hour cross-examination of the witness - psychologist Elizabeth Loftus - that had some members of the audience shaking their heads.
It was the first public courtroom confrontation between Fitzgerald and Libby's defense team and foreshadowed a contentious trial.
Libby wants to use a memory expert to help argue that, when he made false statements to investigators about his conversations with reporters regarding CIA operative Valerie Plame, it was because of faulty memory. Prosecutors say he lied.
Loftus testified that many jurors don't understand how memory works and how unreliable it can be.
Fitzgerald challenged the validity of memory research. Citing footnotes in her publications, presenting conflicting statements and questioning her methodology, Fitzgerald got Loftus to acknowledge that a statement in one of her research papers was taken out of context and that a figure in one of her books was incorrect.
Libby's defense team had no comment after court.
Walton did not immediately rule on whether to allow the memory testimony at trial. He closed the courtroom to continue the debate over how much classified information Libby should be allowed to present at trial.
Libby is the only person charged in the leak case. Plame believes the Bush administration leaked her name to reporters as retribution for her husband's criticism of prewar intelligence on Iraq.
Scooter Ping
Good Grief....Someone has SOMETHING awful on Fitzy.
This is just SO wrong.
Why is this still going on? Perhaps the DemocRATS are hoping for a "weekend-before-the-election" surprise?
This sure is going on much longer than the case to prosecute the Burglar over the theft and destruction of Clinton administration notes about national security or Air America's embezzlement of federal tax funds from a non-profit charity (a crime for which none of the convicted will see any jail time yet it was over $1,000,000 in stolen tax dollars).
The activist courts must be cleared. Dump the judges and start again. Impeach until justice can be served.
I wonder if Fitzgerald remembers how much he donated to the Democratic party.
Guess he forgot how to win a case.
What's a "Plame"? Is Scooter the gay guy that IM'd House pages? /John Q. Public
Someone outed DNC operatives over at CIA, and the DNC is furious about it. They want payback.
The problem is, it wasn't Libby. The problem is, Fitz knew that going in, he also knew who it was going in. No one involved in actually "outing" the DNC agent has actually been charged with anything, not Novak, not Corn, not Armitage.
Thats because, technically, its not illegal to reveal the identity of a DNC mole.
Fitz is a disgrace.
Wow. Fitzgerald is a spectacular attorney. He actually found an error in a book. Looks like Libby must be guilty.
Helping to make the world's books free from errors. What a man!
He's intractably, stubbornly possessed.
Fitz is the Mike Nifong of federal prosecutors.
He is going to make this VERY painful for Scooter..and costly...so that even if Scooter "wins", it will ruin him financially...and make him suffer more than he has.
BUT, Fitzy will be drawing a salary from US, YOU AND ME!!!
Scooter is pardoned by Bush in time for Christmas. Bank on it.
I pray you are right!!!
They need to call in Hillary and question her on her memory or lack of one....
Fitz and Nifong.....both gone nuts.
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