Reddhedd does Reggie Walton

Reddhedd pores over the latest from Reggie Walton:

"You have to hand one thing to Team Libby: they do know how to dream big. Even if the real world doesn't quite live up to those dreams...and Judge Walton's most recent ruling is certainly not a technicolor marvel for them, now is it?

I happen to agree with Larry Johnson's interpretation of this: Team Libby was shooting for the Briar Patch for Brer Libby, but instead, they got stuck with a tar baby of their own making -- a poor memory defense and a judge that is willing to refresh that memory at the lowest possible cost to the government doesn't leave them a lot of maneuvering room -- and when you add in a prosecutor who was intelligent enough to understand and prepare for just this tactical maneuver because he's been there, done that, it tightens things up a bit further still.
[snip]
The judge also says that Libby already has been given a large amount of what he needs to reconstruct his memories on these issues -- including his own notes -- and that only very limited bits of information need be provided by the government as summaries to supplement it. (btw, I think the judge is signalling here that he thinks the memory defense is flimsy at best. You all read this section and see if you don't agree that he's saying it seems awfully thin on page 20.)

On page 20, in footnote 21, we learn that Team Libby hasn't even bothered to request Libby's calendar. Hmmm...if you wanted your client to truly refresh his recollection, wouldn't you think his daily calendar and log of activities would be helpful?

On page 21, the funniest bit for me was put out by the judge -- that Libby's defense must be based on his OWN recollection, not that of whatever briefer the CIA sent along that day, and that the judge wasn't going to help Libby construct a defense out of CIA cloth. Seriously amusing legal snark.

Then, in footnote 23 (on page 21), the judge further says that Team Libby has already demonstrated a substantial knowledge of the issues involved in the PDBs in their own filings with the court. Gee, that kinda undercuts the whole "my bad memory made me lie" bit, doesn't it?
[snip]
So, to sum it up -- Libby gets very little of what he asked for to start. And what he gets may only be used by him to "refresh his recollection" such as he needs it, since the judge thinks he already knows most of what he needs to know to try his little tap dance across the potholes of my mind defense.

And then the jury and the public will likely never know it, which really makes it tough to make your client look all sympathetic and stuff because of his really important, really hard, really busy, really scary job -- since he won't really get to talk about what he did. And...um...that's about it.

Oh, except Team Libby forgot to mention that detailed, tabbed notebook that Libby kept on the Wilsons. Or his constant, obsessive need to bring them up -- repeatedly -- to folks who worked at the White House in and around the time he was also bringing them up to people in the press. Guess their busy jobs made them forget that, too"

that all sounds like good news for our team.