[hipaatwo]

Have at it. Have to post and run.

[hipaatwo]

FYI

[massgopguy]

Judge: Okay Mr. Fitzgerald please state your case
Fitz: Your honor I have these threads from Democratic Underground and clippings from the New York Times that started them or vice versa. I don't know.
Judge: Mr. Fitgerald I sentence you to be Scooter Libby's butler.

[colorado tanker]

On the question of Wilson's status, Fitzgerald wrote, "We have neither sought, much less obtained, 'all documents, regardless of when created, relating to whether Valerie Wilson's status as a CIA employee, or any aspect of that status, was classified at any time between May 6, 2003 and July 14, 2003.'"

Does that mean Fitz never investigated whether there was an IIPA violation, the job he was hired to do in the first place???

[E. Pluribus Unum]

In any event, Fitzgerald argued, "we would not view an assessment of the damaged caused by the disclosure as relevant to the issue of whether or not Mr. Libby intentionally lied when he made the statements and gave the grand jury testimony that the grand jury alleged was false."

At least Mr. Fitzgerald is admitting that the purpose of of his inquisition was not to find the truth, but to manufacture prosecutable crimes.

[AmericaUnited]

Anal Fitzgerald is getting caught with his pants down. He shows his true hand by not going after Wilson and Plame also.

[CharlesWayneCT]

I thought that one aspect of a purjury charge was that the lie had to be material to the investigation.

If there is evidence that no crime existed, wouldn't that at least raise a legitimate inquiry of fact about whether the perjury was material?

Further, wouldn't proof that no law had been violated raise a legitimate jury issue about whether Libby had a reason to purposely mislead investigators, another hurdle of perjury and the false statements charge?

In other words, even though he was not charged with violating a statute, his statements that he didn't purposely lie and had no reason to do so would be bolstered if there was proof that there was no violation of law, and therefore no reason to lie.

[wildcatf4f3]

drop the charges now Pat before you and your career are ruined. Nuncle grab not a great wheel as it rolls downhill.

[Robe]

I'm just the average Joe , so bear with me.....
If no crime has been committed then how can he be charged with "obstruction of justice".
"Justice" implies (at least to me)punishment for the commission of a crime or the vindication from the initial charge

To me (yep I know)any sane judge should throw this case out the window

[popdonnelly]

In terms of significance to the society at large, I would rate this case as less important than the average DUI. But it's a lot more fun to watch.

[Let's Roll]

Earth to Fitzgerald, we know damage was done by traitors leaking NSA procedures ... uh, think you could look into that?

sound of crickets

[Dems_R_Losers]

This case is going to be thrown out. No investigation or proof of underlying crime = no perjury or obstruction. Fitzgerald just shot himself in both feet. I don't know how else you can spin this.

I also think he threw in that gratuitous reference about emails being lost or destroyed precisely to get the subject changed in the media from his own incompetence to a White House "coverup." He can lay low and keep drawing a paycheck while the White House tries to handle a sh*tstorm about destruction of evidence. And any potential jury will be poisoned against Libby and the White House.

[John Lenin]

This case fell apart, will Fitzgerald admit it ? Not likely.

[Wolfstar]

FITZGERALD: We have neither sought, much less obtained, all documents, regardless of when created, relating to whether Valerie Wilson's status as a CIA employee, or any aspect of that status, was classified at any time between May 6, 2003 and July 14, 2003.

The only reason the "leak" of her name was investigated at all was because her CIA employment status was supposedly classified.

FITZGERALD: You [Libby's lawyers] demand access to all documents referencing Mr. Wilson's 2002 trip to Iraq.

Wilson's trip to NIGER, not Iraq, is central to the whole case. It's the story reporters were interested in, and the reason they wanted to discuss it with Libby, Rove and other WH officials. It's the reason Novak wrote his column, which triggered the investigation. Yet Fitzgerald doesn't even get the country right two-plus years into his investigation?!

FITZGERALD: A formal assessment has not been done of the damage caused by the disclosure of Valerie Wilson's status as a CIA employee.

By his own admission, then, Fitzgerald didn't bother to find out if there was even a crime committed as regards the "leak" of her name, so he justifies the waste of taxpayer dollars over more than two years by trumping up perjury charges against Libby.

THIS is the prosecutor so many people, including many FReepers, assured us was squeeky clean, dedicated, honest, excellent, etc.? From the above-quoted court documents, it seems Patrick Fitzgerald ignored all the central facts of the case he was employed to investigate. Un-frickin-believable!

At this point, Fitztgerald is the one who ought to be investigated.

[oneofmany]

Ian't it a judges job to determine if evidence is or is not relevant to a case? Fitzgerald says he doesn't think it's relative so he won't turn anything over.

[newnhdad]

this entire episode is pathetic.
A lecherous hippie who happens to be an unemployed ex-ambassador is sent by his wife, who is a bureaucrat in an office filled with people that are at odds with the administration, to collect data or SPY. These people are probably pissed that they actually have to collect actionable intelligence, which is something the last administration had no use for.

He returns and writes a report that is voluntarily forwarded to the VP's office and folded in with other intel to create a policy that the aging hippie disagrees with. So the aging hippie decides to provide his version of the data to the NY Slimes that willing laps it up.

The administration looks into the matter and discovers that the aging hippie, who leaked secret information, was sent by an uncooperative section of the CIA, recommended by his "spy" wife to discredit the effort but actually helped.
Now someone who worked in the administration heard, as did half of DC, that his wife (democrat) worked "the agency", and recommended him for the job.
This was confirmed to the press and reported as such, then the aging hippie cried to his democrat friends who went ape. To shut them up, the president authorized an investigation into a possible crime.

It's later discovered that no actual crime was committed but nevertheless, Elliot Ness decided to test everyone's memory and create one. So, one guy has a slightly different recollection than a few other people about one, of a few hundred, five-minute conversations he's had over the past few years. This guy is dragged into court and charged with multiple felonies, a day known as "Fitzmas" by his followers.
Now Elliot Ness is hindering the accused's ability to defend himself by withholding evidence that more than likely doesn't exist. He's also trying to take the light away from his poorly run investigation by accusing the administration of hiding "evidence".

This sounds like a movie of the week.

[bray]

Looks like Fitzmas is going to have to change that Pitcher hitting Batter story a bit??? If a Pitcher throws a strike down the middle of the plate, should the Umpire still throw him out???

Pray for W and Our Freedom Fighters

[Hardastarboard]

Every time I hear this guy's name now, I can't help think of that silly joke about the two gay Irish boys who are a perfect match: Patrick Fitzgerald and Gerald Fitzpatrick (read it out loud).

[Pilsner]

I think that there are two possible ways for this to be relevant.

First, Libby's lawyers hope to show that he had no motive to lie about what he had done because he had not broken the law, and the prosecutor knows this.

Second, I hesitate to draw an analogy between State law in Texas and Federal law, but here goes. It is a crime to, with intent to deceive, knowingly make a false statement that is material a criminal investigation to a peace officer conducting that criminal investigation.

It is no defense to the charge of false report that the final conclusion of the investigation was that there was no crime committed, or that the officer just cannot tell if a crime has been committed.

However, if the peace officer already knows that no crime has been committed, then what ever he was doing was not a criminal investigation, and it would not be a crime to have lied to him.

[WoofDog123]

""We have learned that not all e-mail of the Office of Vice President and the Executive Office of President for certain time periods in 2003 was preserved through the normal archiving process on the White House computer system."

Replace cheney with gore and people would be howling. The vanished emails may deal with something else entirely though.

[cgk]

BFLR