Reddhedd & Libby

* Redhedd has a new series about Libby's filings: The Miller’s Tale (And Other Legal Wranglings) - some snippets:

Part I:

But if I were Scooter, I’d be worried about Judy Miller. Nothing spells trouble like a diva scorned. (Especially a diva who is familiar with how the news biz works and knows how to get the word out.) And the way this brief reads, she’s not only yesterday’s pal, but she’s been used, abused and flushed like ratty old TP from the bottom of Scooter’s wingtip. Yowch. And after all that obfuscation and parting of the waters that she gave to Scooter, this is the thanks she gets? Methinks her Judyship is not going quietly into that dark night.

Part 2:

There is an odd bit on pp. 20-21, where Team Libby raises some questions about Marc Grossman and potential bias against Libby. This is a theme that has been woven through a lot of the Libby filings of late, but this time they point to an online article by Jason Leopold at truthout.org to get to a Mike Allen and Dana Priest article in the WaPo to get to documents held by the NYTimes which may or may not have anything to do with Grossman.

Part 3

But the big guns in this filing are aiming at Matt Cooper of Time Magazine (beginning on p. 31), which says to me a couple of things: that they fear Cooper is a likeable, credible kind of guy — the sort of person with whom the jury can identify and who could sink Scooter if they believe Cooper’s version of events (and I base this solely on Cooper’s interview persona and the personality that comes out of his writing style and my trial experience in front of multiple juries, watching how witnesses are perceived); and that Team Libby is willing to pull out all the stops to either intimidate Cooper or to find a chink in his nice guy armor.

summary

All in all, a very interesting filing from Camp Scooter. We’ve known for quite a while that the media credibility issue was going to be a big defense area, and this maps out a bit more clearly where they are testing for weak spots (which is exactly what you would expect a competent defense counsel to do). But this all depends on Judge Walton and how narrowly he reads the question of materiality for Scooter’s particular indictment — and how generous he wants to be in advance of trial. And there are a lot of open questions in my mind as to how muchof all this information Libby will ultimately get out of these subpoenas — he’s likely to get some, but I’m not sure how much toward all of it he’ll be able to go. But all of this makes for a very interesting set of arguments come May 16th — and I, for one, am looking forward to it.