Posted on 05/03/2006 7:38:57 AM PDT by the Real fifi
We have just been granted a window on the struggle between Lewis “Scooter” Libby and the elite media over his access to their internal documents. Libby is charged with federal crimes because his versions of conversations with reporters differ from the accounts of the media people. He seeks evidence from their files about what they knew and what they privately wrote at the time. In a “he said/she said” confrontation, access to supporting evidence becomes critical to the ability to mount a defense.
Late Monday night Libby filed a Motion in Response to the media’s efforts to quash his subpoenas for documents in their possession. At last, after a three year one-sided smear campaign by the elite media and by an unsupervised and careless Special Counsel, Libby gets to show us the flimsiness of the case against him.
Moreover, just how do we know you are the real fifi? Hmmmm?
Checl my Gabonese passport.
They outed themselves by having a media open house at the Plame residence before the Novak story hit.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0706-05.htm
"Last week, Wilson said of Hussein: 'I'm glad the tyrant is gone.' But he does not believe the war was ever about eliminating Hussein's weapons of mass destruction. It was, he said, a political push to 'redraw the map of the Middle East.' While his family prepared for a Fourth of July dinner, he proudly showed a reporter photos of himself with Bush's parents."
This would, would it not, fit the "malice aforethought" module - ergo, be prosecutable?
The high percent of the cases brought against republicans for the past 2 decades have been of this formula.
Isn't it time to start suing under these parameters and put the breaks on these tactics?
Why wouldn't they just CHANGE what their notes say?
That is almost impossible to do under federal law. OTOH if you are a target of one of these super special prosecutors, you should take the Fifth, even if it means leaving office,
Its a no win situation. If you assert your rights you are guilty.
You should make a statement when you plead the Fifth that you do so to protest the unconstitutional special prosecution process which is designed to punish perfectly legal conduct, the criminalization of politics.
No President should ever agree to this again.
Yep
Because they know they are bringing false charges - their goal is to be able to twist something that is said and then prosecute on "lying" - - Martha Stuart comes to mind
Great article. What is the next step? Does the judge make a decision on what the journo's have to turn over? And if yes, when is that decision scheduled to be made? I can't believe Fitzy; the more I read, the more annoyed I get that this is even in the courts. When is the DOJ going to jump on board and tell Fitzy ITS OVER?
Judge makes the decision. No date set. The media has right to file a responsive pleading first.When will DOJ act? My guess is never.Though it would be doing him a favor, I think, if they asked him to write a memo on where he is in the case and where he plans to go and let the career prosecutors discuss with him whther the shortfalls warrant continuing.
Thanks Real fifi. Scooter Ping.
You are welcome, LaVerne.
Granted, it's a convoluted case of small events, with many self-invested reporters and issues of recall in noted conversations, but the agonizing subtleties and phoney statements of ignorance by the press and the incomprehensible lack of reason and "selective" evidence choices exhibited by Fitzgerald CAN'T be allowed to cloak what they're all doing to Libby and what's at stake here: the constitutional right of every defendant to defend himself when charged with a crime.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"The case is full of holes.
This Star Chamber proceeding continues on without cessation despite the credibility problems of the reporters upon whom the prosecution rests. Libby’s latest pleading is based on the very small amount of documentation in his possession and the public record (which apparently the Prosecutor reads very selectively).
Anyone with good judgment and discretion would have told Fitzgerald long ago that reliance on such selective testimony and documentation by the media, whose credibility is so unworthy of his trust, was folly. The fundamental problem of the case is that Fitzgerald has no supervision to provide the necessary outside larger perspective.
Former Attorney General Ashcroft, who recused himself, and interim AG Comey, who turned this over to Fitzgerald without any supervision or control, have both been replaced. It’s past time for the Department of Justice to pay attention. After all, it was just last week that Judge Walton assured us that they were still in a position to exercise meaningful supervision and direction over this case when he denied Libby’s Motion to Dismiss.
The DoJ should take Judge Walton at his word and call in Patrick Fitzgerald to review his handling of this case, and exercise the supervisory responsibilities Judge Walton says are theirs.
Where are they as this travesty lumbers on?"
BUMP!
Tomorrow will be another day in court....keep you eyes on the JOM site for a transcript of the session:
ORDER
On May 5, 2006, this Court will conduct a hearing to address the defendant’s Third Motion to Compel Discovery Under Rule 16 and Brady. A substantial number of the defendant’s document requests, which are the subject of this motion, are predicated upon the defendant’s desire to respond to each factual allegation in the October 28, 2005 indictment. Accordingly, resolution of many of the issues in the defendant’s motion may depend, at least in part, on which factual allegations in the indictment the government intends to introduce evidence about in its case-in-chief.
Accordingly, it is hereby this 3rd day of May, 2006,
ORDERED that the government should, at the May 5, 2006 hearing, be prepared to specify which factual allegations contained in the indictment it intends to introduce evidence about in its case-in-chief.
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Thanks for the ping.
What did the media know and when did they know it? Why are the media being so secretive, what are they hiding?
At the WH Correspondents' Dinner, when they showed Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson arriving and showing themselves off to everyone there, CSpan had at the bottom of the screen that we were looking at "former CIA ***Operative***[my emphasis] Valerie Plame". It is now a Media false fact in this case that she was an operative. I'll bet every one of these Media slimes knew and know full well she wasn't an operative.
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