Posted on 07/17/2007 3:35:15 PM PDT by greyfoxx39
The further redacted affidavits filed in the Miller case are now available online. Two interesting facts have struck Just One Minute commenters as we skim through this newly available material.
First, Fitzgerald granted Ari Fleischer immunity without requiring him to provide waivers, so that Fitzgerald could not confirm Ari's story with reporters. This seems remarkable, and when you add to it that Fitzgerald claimed in court that he granted immunity to Fleischer without having any idea what he'd testify to, it is astonishing. It may explain why he believed for so long that Libby had been the source to Walter Pincus, who at trial testified it was not Libby, but Fleischer who told him about Plame.
More interesting perhaps is that Armitage falsely denied that he'd told any reporter before Novak. Among the interesting tidbits available now in the latest unsealing of redactions:
48. The investigation of Armitage's conduct is near complete and, indeed, Armitage testified for the second (and final) time before the grand jury on September 22, 2004. Armitage testified that he did not recall discussing Wilson's employment with any reporter other than Novak prior to July 14, 2003, and specifically denied any recollection of discussing the matter with Cooper or any of his Time colleagues.
Not only was this false--Armitage had told Bob Woodward in June of 2003-- but it ignores that he had refused repeatedly to grant Woodward a waiver to tell that to the investigators:
Here's Woodward's account of his efforts to tell the investigators:
Nov. 21st 2005 -
LARRY KING: Doesn't it appear a little that way though when your other source won't let it be public who he or she is? That sounds conspiratorial.
WOODWARD: It may be but I pressed that source as much as you can
-----
I made efforts to get the source, this year, earlier, and last year, to give me some information about this so I could put something in the newspaper or a book. So, I could get information out, and totally failed.
and
Then, the day of the indictment I read the charges against Libby and looked at the press conference by the special counsel and he said the first disclosure of all of this was on June 23rd, 2003 by Scooter Libby, the vice president's chief of staff to "New York Times" reporter Judy Miller.
I went, whoa, because I knew I had learned about this in mid- June, a week, ten days before, so then I say something is up. There's a piece that the special counsel does not have in all of this.
I then went into incredibly aggressive reporting mode and called the source the beginning of the next week and said "Do you realize when we talked about this and exactly what was said?"
And the source in this case at this moment, it's a very interesting moment in all of this, said "I have to go to the prosecutor. I have to go to the prosecutor. I have to tell the truth."
And so, I realized I was going to be dragged into this that I was the catalyst and then I asked the source "If you go to the prosecutor am I released to testify" and the source told me yes. So it is the reporting process that set all this in motion.
It's easy to see why the prosecution fought so hard to keep this material from the public eye. I can't wait to see the still redacted portions of the prosecutor's affidavit and the opinion.
Each bit of information makes this prosecution look more focused on finding a scapegoat--Libby- than on finding out the truth.
Hat tip: Mjw, ts, elliott
Clarice Feldman
Update:
Tom Maguire finds more puzzling information in the recently redacted affidavits: At Source
You are correct.
And this is MORE evidence this was a political prosecution.
Try googling Walter Pincus’s name and see what pops up!
Besides the fact that the dame wasn't 'outed' in the first place... OHmmm,maybe because they couldn't take down Bush, Cheney and Rove through getting ARmitage?
They weren't after truth, remember, they were concocting, fabricating, lying and anything else they could get away with to get at Bush, Rove and Chaney - using Libby as the pawn
Sounds like Fitzgerald actually interfered with his own investigation and commited perjury.
If he had given a full pardon, and many FR’s were castrating him for not doing so, we wouldn’t be hearing any of this now or what is to come.
A full pardon - which Libby and his lawyers DID NOT want at this time - would have meant it was all over and Libby would forever be a felon, forever disbarred and not able to launch and appeal....which will open up the whole case and shine a bright light on the real criminals... Fitzy can’t be sleeping good these nights. He's probably having Nifong nightmares...I hope
Under a coffin lid?
Thanks, Bookmarked for later.
So why did Armitage testify that he only discussed Plame with Novak, and why did Armitage refuse to allow Woodward to come forward with the fact that he had told the story to Woodward? Armitage must have had conversations with other people as well prior to July 14. Andrea Mitchell? Colin Powell? Our ace investigator, Fitzgerald, is on the job.
“I smell a rat, Walter, a big one.” - Edward G. Robinson, “Double Indemnity”.
In October of 2003, Pincus cowrote a story for The Washington Post which described a July 12, 2003 conversation between an unnamed administration official and an unnamed Post reporter. The official told the reporter that Iraq war critic Joe Wilson’s wife Valerie Plame worked for the CIA’s nonproliferation division, and suggested that Plame had recommended her husband to investigate reports that Iraq’s government had tried to buy uranium in Niger. It later became clear that Pincus himself was the Post reporter in question. Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald issued a grand jury subpoena to Pincus on August 9, 2004, in an attempt to discover the identity of Pincus’ secret informant. On August 20, the Post filed a motion to quash the subpoena, but after Pincus’ source came forward to speak with investigators, Pincus gave a deposition to Fitzgerald on September 15; Pincus recounted the 2003 conversation to Fitzgerald but still did not name the administration official. In a public statement afterward, Pincus said that the special prosecutor had dropped his demand that Pincus reveal his source. On February 12, 2007, Pincus admitted to Scooter Libby’s lawyer, William Jeffress Jr, that it was former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer that told him of the identity of Valerie Plame and her job with the CIA. Pincus was interviewed about his involvement in the Plame affair, and his refusal to identify his source, in the first episode of Frontline’s documentary “News War”.
“Novak said part of the reason he wrote about Wilson and his wife was that he found Wilson unpleasant and a “questionable choice” to look into the Niger claims after he met him while both were waiting to go onto a television interview program.
“He was saying that things had been done in a superior way in the National Security Council before in the Clinton administration,” Novak recalled. “I thought it was sort of an obnoxious performance.””
Washington DC politics is a war waged with dirt. Everybody is trying to get dirt on everybody else. I have a feeling somebody got some dirt on Fitzgerald. Prior to the obscene Libby railroad job, Fitz had an average reputation as a prosecutor, but at least nobody questioned his ethics. Now he has gone and thrown that all away, and I think somebody compelled him to do it.
Unless Fitz is flat out stupid, that is.
Should Libby pursue his appeals (which I assume he will)will it be finished before Bush finishes his term in office?
Would Libbys team rather have a pardon at that point or a chance at vindication?
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