"Notebooks belonging to former New York Times reporter Judith Miller indicate she may have been told about covert CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson by another White House official before her first meeting in late June 2003 with I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby..., an attorney representing Libby claims.I'm not sure there's much news there. We always knew those references to plame were written elsewhere in the notebook - it's not apparent why they are bringing this up now (or back in May).
According to a May 16, 2006, court transcript obtained by Truthout, Libby attorney William Jeffress told US District Court judge Reggie B. Walton that redacted versions of Miller's notebooks turned over to the defense during the discovery phase of the Libby criminal proceedings show that "Ms. Miller was investigating and focusing on [former Ambassador Joseph] Wilson before the very first time that she met with Mr. Libby, that is before June 23, 2003."
"There are numerous entries throughout those notebooks to 'V.F.,' or 'Victoria Wilson,' or to 'Valerie Wilson,' all of which indicate that she [Miller] is talking to someone else about Mr. Wilson's wife," Jeffress said, according to a copy of the 128-page transcript. "What she learned and when she learned it about Mr. Wilson's wife is extremely - it is right at the heart of this case.
[]
Moreover, Jeffress argued that Time should be required to turn over drafts of Cooper's first person account of his grand jury testimony published in Time July 25, 2005, so the defense can determine if it reads differently from the final version of the article that appeared in the magazine and could subsequently help prove Cooper is not a credible prosecution witness.
Judge Walton agreed."
(thnx LeeB)
update: Dr E at Cannon's thinks that the significance is that the issue is about Rove.
1 comment:
Quoth Franken last October, "The only disappointment was the lack of a "treason" indictment. Looks like thirty years is the most Scooter will get. But who knows? He might get squeezed and end up ratting out the other guys, and get only eight to twelve."
If I'm reading Leopold's story and Dr. E's commentary correctly, Fitz plays Libby and the journalists to indict Libby on perjury & obstruction, then plays Rove to ratchet up the pressure, all the while playing Libby's team to cough up hard evidence on Rove and who knows what more?
If Rove is playing nice with Pat, Libby's certainly being squeezed. The scenario explains "Absent any unexpected developments" in the dribbles of the letter/fax that Luskin released, and is particularly interesting after all the speculation of the crosshairs being on the OVP, but it fits Fitz' established MO for investigation of broad criminal operations and eventual indictments in numbers. Far from being an "unguided missile", the man's a MIRV.
It begs the question, how many targets is he tracking?
Side note: The timing with the release of the Waas piece is curious, too.
Still curious as to what "06 cr 128" is. Not saying it's significant or even directly related, we don't know, I'm just real damn curious ;)
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