Posted on 01/28/2007 2:28:47 PM PST by freespirited
President Bush's ex-spokesman invoked the Fifth Amendment when asked in front of a grand jury about the illegal outing of spy Valerie Plame, prosecutors revealed this week. Former White House spokesman Ari Fleischer sought and received immunity from prosecution for unmasking the secret agent.
Armed with this immunity, Fleischer is now expected to testify Monday in the perjury trial of Lewis (Scooter) Libby.
Fleischer is expected to tell the court that Libby, formerly Vice President Cheney's top adviser, told him on July 7, 2003, that "he had some information that was hush-hush," said special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald.
What was hush-hush was that Bush critic and former ambassador Joseph Wilson was married to Plame, a CIA operations officer. Wilson had infuriated Cheney by debunking the White House claim that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had tried to buy uranium in Niger for a nuclear bomb.
Fleischer cited his Fifth Amendment rights in 2004 before a federal grand jury and was "reluctantly" given immunity, Fitzgerald said in court Thursday.
"I didn't want to give him immunity," Fitzgerald said.
Libby is fighting perjury charges for telling a grand jury he first learned about Plame on July 10, 2003, from journalist Tim Russert. That is three days after Libby allegedly told Fleischer about Plame.
Fitzgerald told the jury in opening arguments that Fleischer also helped spread the news about the spy.
"Ari Fleischer had conversations with reporters about Wilson's wife that he should not have had," Fitzgerald said.
Libby's lawyer Ted Wells said Fleischer told NBC's David Gregory and others about Plame during a stroll while on a presidential trip to Africa.
Wells told jurors Thursday that "Fleischer may have issues of credibility because of a deal that was cut."
If Bill Clinton had been a virgin, he would still have been the most immoral president in this country's history.
In exchange for illegal campaign contributions from the government of China, he allowed the Chinese to buy American technology, which now makes them capable of hitting American cities with nuclear missiles.
Assuming this is accurate, so what if Libby told Fleischer something that is "hush hush"? Last time I checked, telling someone something is "hush hush" doesn't mean "run out and blab this to the press."
bttt
As you say, assuming this is accurate, Fleischer seems to be the one who ignored the "hush hush" warning and went out to blab to the press. Of course Fitzgerald gave him immunity because that's not really what the case is about.
Exactly - Richard Armitage admitted to it, and Fitzpatrick let him go with nary a problem. Plame wasn't a spy but a desk analyst. Exposing her name wasn't against the law. If so, hubby Joe Wilson should be behind bars because he put her name in his Who's Who entry.
Exactly - Richard Armitage admitted to it, and Fitzpatrick let him go with nary a problem. Plame wasn't a spy but a desk analyst. Exposing her name wasn't against the law. If so, hubby Joe Wilson should be behind bars because he put her name in his Who's Who entry.
Thanks for the compilation!
Thanks for the ping. In SD we get little snippets of Jim's leftist and treasonous leanings. I don't need to say anything about the relationship to Tim Johnson, who really got to me the day I heard him announce publicly, his thoughts on the Constitution as a living document.
I called a staffer and blew a gasket while on the phone. Tim knew how to keep his name out of the limelight, and in line with SD public thinking, except for that incident, which was a radio news quote. SD public opinion is usually quite red, until election day and then strangely turns blue.
Well, not exactly strange, since the only major metro area is highly blue, and contains a good portion of the voting public. That and the Indian Reservations which are also solid blue. As an ex Senator, Jim can count on being quoted on a broad array of subjects, some unrelated to his leanings.
I agree. LOL
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