If Scooter Libby did tell the grand jury and the FBI that he learned about Valerie Plame from Tim Russert, and there is proof he lied, he should be indicted. He then lied.
Karl Rove appears to have broken no law. Libby didn't. He should be thrown aside. I have no sympathy for people who lie to the FBI and a grand jury.
he may have learned about it from russert in addition to other channels. we need to carefull about throwing sacrificial lambs.
lying is in the eye of the beholder. For example, if I asked you when did you learn to multiply numbers and you replied "the third grade". Then I pull out a quiz given by your second grade teacher that shows you got multiplication problems correct in the second grade, did you lie when answering my initiial question? Of course not. You were simply wrong when you answered, probably due to trying to remember something that happened so long ago. Let's see the evidence. Libby might be a ham sandwich in all this.
I think there's another side to this issue, though - abuse of prosecutorial discretion.
Miller was given the chance to correct her testimony after being prompted by Fitzgerald's revealing evidence of a meeting she forgot. Why wasn't Libby given the same opportunity and/or latitude?
If one side gets a pass, both need to. In theory, neither should be given that much latitude.
"He should be thrown aside. I have no sympathy for people who lie to the FBI and a grand jury"
Amen!!
Scooter Libby doesn't get to decide if a crime has been committed or not...he doesn't get to decide if it's okay to commit perjury because he really didn't commit a crime in outing Plame. A judge or jury gets to decide if a crime was committed.
And FWIW - there's much discussion on this board about whether Plame was covert or not. I guess the jury is still out on this (pun intended). But Scooter Libby doesn't get to decide if it's okay to out even a potential CIA agent. As someone with top secret clearance he was well aware of the responsibility that comes with such trust.
If Libby & Rove were so convinced that it was okay to mention Plame's name to the press...why did they act so secretively about it? Why did they refuse to admit that they were the sources? Why did Libby ask Miller to misidentify him as a former hill staffer? Why did Matt Cooper have this info on 'super double secret background' in his notes? Why did VP Cheney go on Meet The Press and deny that he knew who Wilson was months after he gave Libby the info? And why did the memo on Air Force 1 indicate that her identity was top secret, not even to be shared with friendly foreign gov'ts?
Why on earth didn't the White House just rebut Wilson's story in the press in a straightforward honest direct manner?
This whole think stinks and it makes me sad that we're not holding our side to the same standards as we claimed to expect from you-know-who.