Libby (Trial) Update {Juror Dismissed From Case }

NRO (The Corner) ^ | 2/26/07 | Byrion York

[woofie]

The law she helped write involved releasing the identity of a CIA person who is undercover

[justshutupandtakeit]

Fitzgerald does not need this. He has enough work to stay in Chicago for a century. There is no additional money here for him.

[traderrob6]

Intrade has a chance of guilty verdict dropping by 22 points! Now at 58% chance of conviction.

[cookcounty]

"Why would the t-shirt have anything to do with her dismissal?"

Maybe she's a prejudiced ringer for the prosecution, therefore at odds with the rest of the jury and consequently refused to participate in their Valentine stunt.

Then again, maybe it offended her sense of aesthetics. If the valentine hearts were made of elephant dung, maybe she'd have participated?

[AmishDude]

Well, given the fact that he tends to go after corrupt Republicans, he may have already strip-mined everything in Chicago.

This is about promotion of himself, too. Remember the awful "baseball" press conference? He wants a plum position in the (H.) Clinton Justice Department.

[MaestroLC]

Libby Update 5 [Byron York]

Andy — Thanks for those thoughts. It did appear this morning that the defense seemed a bit more upbeat — just body language and facial expressions — than did the prosecution. On the other hand, there's a lot of buzz about the juror who was dismissed. She was the former art curator who declined to wear a T-shirt with the rest of the jury on Valentine's Day. At the time, there was speculation that perhaps she was a dissenter, and her presence was dividing the jury, which would be good news for a defense team hoping for a hung jury if it couldn't get an acquittal. In that scenario, her removal could conceivably be bad news for the defense. On the other hand, I thought that as an art curator, she probably refused to put on the red T-shirt for purely aesthetic reasons. In any event, she's gone. Does that mean a divisive factor has been removed, or that there are other problems? You got me.

[STARWISE]

I believe Walton is a Bush 43 selection.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

report... a jury member received outside information...

That this entire case is a farce?

[WhistlingPastTheGraveyard]

Bill Bennett was saying this morning that he'd worked with the judge, knew him well and that he was a good guy.

[tiredoflaundry]

Thanks Star!

[Jrabbit]

CTV reporting that after the juror dismissal, Libby was smiling, Fitz was grim.

[AmishDude]

Yeah, he might be overcompensating -- bending over backwards to not be seen as being pro-Libby. I think not permitting Mitchell testimony is a bridge too far, though.

[AmishDude]

They must know something specific about her. I suppose we'll know soon, especially if she does an interview with Salon.

[cookcounty]

"Well, given the fact that he tends to go after corrupt Republicans, he may have already strip-mined everything in Chicago."

His signature Chicago project was Operation Graylord, which targeted corrupt judges in Cook County, overwhelmingly Democrats. IIRC, he is registered as a Republican in Illinois.

[RobFromGa]

Interesting development.

[Bryan24]

I think that during the jury selection, the defense knew that this woman was a likely prosecution "gimme". I'll bet they didn't have any more strikes to use on her.

This makes more sense than anything I'm reading. I think that the Libby team was scared of her being on the jury, but now that she is off, they feel much better about getting a hung jury or an outright acquitall. And from what I'm reading this morning, Fitzgerald is thinking the same way.

[Iwo Jima]

It appears that after 2 and 1/2 unpleasant days of being at odds with her fellow jurors, this lady "outed" herself just to get away.

If that's the case, the odds for a quick acquittal look good.

[Question Liberal Authority]

Fox just said there's some info that perhaps a juror has been exposed to some outside into and "tainted."

In other words, somebody leaked sensitive information to them?

Does this mean we have to have another 3 years of witch hunts investigations by a special prosecutor to find out who leaked the information to the juror?

[GOP_Muzik]

I'm betting that the juror who was dismissed was seen by Wells, from pre-trial juror questioning, as a very pro-prosecution juror and that Fitgerald knew that losing this juror would hurt his chances of a conviction.

Absolutely. This is without a doubt a good thing for the defense. Expect verdicts or a hung jury announcement within 24 hours.

[AmishDude]

IIRC, he was responsible for going after Gov. Ryan and his R to D ratio for indictments was pretty high. But I won't dispute you.