Posted on 07/04/2005 3:17:36 PM PDT by STARWISE
Karl Rove's lawyer, Robert Luskin, had his holiday weekend ruined on Friday when I broke the story that the e-mails that Time delivered to the special prosecutor that afternoon reveal that Karl Rove is the source Matt Cooper has been protecting for two years.
The next day, Luskin was forced to open the first hole in the Rove two-year wall of silence about the case. In a huge admission to Newsweek and the Los Angeles Times, Luskin confessed that, well, yes, Rove did talk to Cooper. It is a huge admission in a case where Rove and Luskin have never, before Friday, felt compelled to say a word about Rove's contact with Cooper or anyone else involved in the case.
Luskin then launched what sounds like an I-did-not-inhale defense. He told Newsweek that his client "never knowingly disclosed classified information." Knowingly. That is the most important word Luskin said in what has now become his public version of the Rove defense.
Not coincidentally, the word 'knowing' is the most important word in the controlling statute ( U.S. Code: Title 50: Section 421). To violate the law, Rove had to tell Cooper about a covert agent "knowing that the information disclosed so identifies such covert agent and that the United States is taking affirmative measures to conceal such covert agent's intelligence relationship to the United States."
So, Rove's defense now hangs on one word—he "never knowingly disclosed classified information." Does that mean Rove simply didn't know Valerie Plame was a covert agent? Or does it just mean that Rove did not know that the CIA was "taking affirmative measures" to hide her identity?
In Luskin's next damage control session with the press, let's see if any reporter can get him to drop the word 'knowingly' from the never-disclosed-classified-information bit.
O'Donnell is a nutcase shill for the DNC. He is so full of himself that he expects Rove to answer all his questions and, when Rovee doesn't, he claims Rove's silence means Rove is guilty of whatever crackpot claims O'Donnell has made. Sorry, Larry, but it doesn't work that way -- save with cretins -- a/k/a Democrats.
I really wonder who wants Bush impeached more... the MSM or the DNC.
Does that mean Rove simply didn't know Valerie Plame was a covert agent?
She hadn't been a covert operative since her own husband outed her. This guy's whacko.
CREEPY LIAR!!!!!!!!!!!!1
There's no difference.
Notice he doesn't accuse Rove of leaking Plame's name. So what's the crime, Larry?
Yeah, only Democrats should be allowed to speak to the press. Republicans will be accused of crimes.
Sound like anyone we know on FoxNews?
From what I heard, Rove talked to Cooper, but only AFTER Plame's name was already disclosed. So it's hardly an "I did not inhale defense." It's more like an "I did not disclose defense." And disclosure is the fundamental requirement of the statute.
It's interesting though that O'Donnell characterizes it as an "I did not inhale defense."
Afterall, we all know who it was who did not inhale.
I thought the Cubans had outted her a long time before her later outting.
Interesting point & good catch.
The response should have been "I did not dislose the name". Period. This "knowingly" stuff is so pre-Clinton.
Do all that disclaiming AFTER you get caught, not before.
"It's interesting though that O'Donnell characterizes it as an "I did not inhale defense." "
O'DUnnell has been inhaling with Aaron Sorkin again.
"I did not inhale"
O'Donnell is so full of hatred that he tripped himself up - I'm sure he didn't want a negative reference to Clinton.
Y-A-W-N. Mr. O'Donnell, you obviously do inhale. Get help.
now he is just ignoring what is being said to fit Rove into his HE DID IT thinking.
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