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From Aspen we get this report of a talk by Karl Rove and a comment from the audience by former Secretary of State Powell: Former Secretary of State Colin Powell stood up in the audience during the question-and-answer period to say that it was his deputy secretary of state, Richard Armitage, who sparked the CIA leak case. Powell said that Armitage responded to a question by Novak about Wilson, saying "I think she works for the CIA..." Powell said that Armitage later called him and told him he had been the one who had talked to Novak about Wilson. Powell...

At the close of business today, Lewis Libby filed his response to the Fitzgerald response to his Application for Release Pending Appeal (and to the supplemental 30 page opinion Judge Walton entered after the bond hearing. It is short and and easy to read. Let me tempt you to do so by setting forth the first paragraph, something that should be a model to all legal writers for its succinct and persuasive presentation of this argument: "When a Special Counsel is directed to exercise the "plenary" authority of the Attorney General "independent of' anyone's "supervision or control"; is exempted from...

It is always a challenge to describe legal proceedings for a general audience and accurately capture clearly the gist of the arguments without oversimplifying them or making them utterly boring and incomprehensible to non-lawyers. Having said that, I believe that while the clock is rapidly ticking on Libby's effort to remain free pending the resolution of appeal, the papers he filed Tuesday need to satisfy so little and his arguments are so compelling, that I will be surprised if the Court of Appeals does not agree with his position. As I noted yesterday, there are three general arguments he makes...

Professor P.S. Ruckman of Rock Valley College has studied pardons, and wrote to David Frum of NRO about the extensive array of tools available to presidents seeking to avoid injustice through use of executive power as a check on the judiciary. Some highlights of what he found: By granting a respite (or a series of respites), the president can 1) help Libby avoid prison 2) allow the appellate process to continue, for now, without the disruption of a pardon and 3) allow any decision on a pardon to be made after the election - a clear political concern to many....

Mr. President, do not leave this man behind. Scooter Libby was a soldier in your--our--war in Iraq,...snipThe men and women who entrusted you with the presidency, I dare say, are hard pressed to understand why former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, who was the admitted leaker of Mrs. Wilson's identity to columnist Robert Novak, has the comforts of home and freedom and privilege while Scooter Libby faces the dreaded prospect of imprisonment. The "covertness" of Mrs. Wilson was never convincingly and fully established. ...(snip)...So the recollections of Scooter Libby clashed with those of journalist Tim Russert? Surely, we don't...

One of the differences between reading live blogging of the Libby Trial and reading or hearing news accounts, is that we have it in real time. Even the most skillful of reporters in the court like Matt Apuzzo have filing deadlines which usually means that they get the direct testimony but not the cross examination in their first stories. But in this case the cross examination is the story. Tim Russert, who is a key prosecution witness, took the stand for about 11 minutes today to say that he had not mentioned the name of Wilson's wife in his call...

From the outset, Joseph Wilson IV has insisted he was sent to Niger at the Vice President's behest. As more facts about the trip became known and the Vice President vehemently denied this claim, the scenario appeared that the CIA sent him after Cheney raised a question in an intelligence report, and that the Vice President was utterly unaware of the Mission to Africa. This notion was reinforced when the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) reported that the agency managed to act remarkably quickly, approving the trip so close in time after the inquiry. But we have just learned...

NOBODY knows what is going to happen in the perjury trial of Scooter Libby, the one-time chief of staff to Vice President Cheney. Every day, special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's team presents evidence that Libby lied to a grand jury. Every day, Libby's defense effectively pokes holes in the prosecution's case. ...snip.... I have no doubt that Fitzgerald gets up in the morning and looks in the mirror and sees a righteous man. But alas, his eyes deceive him, and his mirror shows nothing but Narcissus.

Two journalists were sentenced last September for refusing to testify about who leaked secret grand jury testimony to them about Barry Bonds' use of steroids. (They had written a series of articles and a popular book exposing steroid use in the major leagues.) There is a parallel between that travesty and the CIA leak fiasco which resulted in both the indictment of Lewis Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff - for obstruction of justice and perjury, and the jailing of yet another journalist who refused to testify about sources. In the Bonds matter, baseball lovers were highly...

WASHINGTON - A federal judge strongly admonished an attorney for former ambassador Joseph Wilson for her appearance yesterday on MSNBC's program "Hardball" where she predicted a jury can find I Lewis "Scooter" Libby guilty of making false statements. U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton writes in an opinion today, "the Court would not tolerate this case being tried in the media." Melanie Sloan, who is representing Wilson and his wife Valerie Plame in a civil suit against Libby, was asked by Chris Matthews if she thought Libby could still found guilty of perjury and obstruction charges - in the upcoming CIA/Leak...

A former White House aide, I. Lewis Libby, may have disclosed conclusions from a highly classified government report on Iraq to journalists before the report was declassified by President Bush, federal prosecutors said in a new court filing. snip.... On Monday, Judge Walton ruled that the government was being too stingy in crafting descriptions that jurors could be shown of the classified security matters Mr. Libby handled. However, the judge withdrew that ruling yesterday, citing a problem with its legal rationale. Mr. Libby's trial is set to begin in January.

Former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby will not be allowed to use a memory expert at his perjury and obstruction trial, a federal judge ruled Thursday, blocking a key tactic in Libby's defense strategy. Libby, who is accused of lying to investigators in the CIA leak case, wanted an expert to testify that memory is unreliable, especially during times of stress. Libby says he had national security issues on his mind and any misstatements he made about the leak of CIA officer Valerie Plame's name were mistakes, not lies. U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton said allowing a...

WASHINGTON - Without ever mentioning him by name, Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, in a court filing Monday, argues that a jury in the CIA/Leak trial should not consider evidence concerning why he did not charge former State Department official Richard Armitage with leaking Valerie Plame's name to reporters. It is a crime to intentionally disclose the name of a classified CIA operative. Fitzgerald writes, "The fact that no other person was charged with a crime relating to the disclosure of classified information says absolutely nothing about whether defendant Libby is guilty of the charged crimes."

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...

Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff intends to load up his criminal trial with information about nine national security matters, the names of foreign leaders and details about various terrorist groups, say court filings in the Valerie Plame leak case. The papers filed this week hint at what has been taking place behind closed doors as Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald tries to limit the amount of classified data that I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby is permitted to use at his trial in January. U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton is asking whether classified evidence would overlap Libby's likely trial testimony....

Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff plans to take the stand at his upcoming trial to tell jurors that he never lied to investigators in the CIA leak case, defense attorneys said Friday. I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby is charged with perjury, obstruction and lying to the FBI about his conversations in 2003 with reporters regarding Valerie Plame's CIA job. Prosecutors say Libby is trying to torpedo the criminal case by demanding the use of classified information that is too sensitive to be released at trial. It's a tactic known as "graymail" and the goal is to get a...

A federal judge handed a victory to the defense Thursday in the Valerie Plame case, siding with Vice President Dick Cheney's indicted former chief of staff in a fight over release of classified information. U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton decided that he won't impose strict standards sought by prosecutors who want to limit the amount of classified information used in the trial of defendant I. Lewis Libby.

Clarice Feldman has mailed today (9/19/06) the following letter to the Department of Justice, Office of Professional Responsibility regarding the conduct of Patrick Fitzgerald, in the matter of the prosecution Lewis “Scooter” Libby. With her permission, we reproduce it in its entirety. H. Marshall Jarrett, Counsel Office of Professional Responsibility 950 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Suite 3266 Washington, D.C. 20530 Re: Patrick Fitzgerald’s handling of the Plame Case Dear Mr. Jarrett: I am writing to suggest that if one is not underway yet, it is long past due to undertake an investigation into the circumstances of the appointment of Patrick Fitzgerald...

(CBS) In an exclusive interview with CBS News national security correspondent David Martin, Richard Armitage, once the No. 2 diplomat at the State Department, couldn't be any blunter. "Oh I feel terrible. Every day, I think I let down the president. I let down the Secretary of State. I let down my department, my family and I also let down Mr. and Mrs. Wilson," he says. When asked if he feels he owes the Wilsons an apology, he says, "I think I've just done it." In July 2003, Armitage told columnist Robert Novak that Ambassador Wilson's wife worked for the...

Caesar was stabbed, in the end, by one of his closest and most loyal friends, Brutus. And George Bush was betrayed throughout the course of the entire Fitzgerald inquisition by his one time friend and close confidant, Colin Powell, who knew all along the involvement of Richard Armitage, and chose to keep quiet. Loyalty runs between many extremes. ...snip... With Colin Powell, as with Mr. Armitage, loyalty has finally gone the way of the Model-T. And sadly, Mr. Powell's damage will be enshrined forever by the left in what appears to be their longest running hit piece of modern times....