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Tuesday, Feb 9, 2010
Bob Woodward's revelation won't help Libby -- and it only plunges the Bush administration deeper into the ethical mud.
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I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby
Nov 19, 2005 | Shortly after Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, was indicted for obstructing justice and making false statements to a government agent and a grand jury, Libby's attorneys suggested that they would use the standard he's-a-busy-man-who-can't-remember-everything defense. But now, with Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward's revelation that a senior administration official other than Libby told him, in mid-June 2003, that Joseph Wilson's trip to Niger had been arranged by Wilson's CIA operative wife, Valerie Wilson, it appears the Libby team has added another favorite, the SODDI Defense -- as in, "Some other dude did it." Unfortunately for Libby, that turkey won't fly. Here's why.
According to Libby's attorney, Theodore Wells, Woodward's disclosure is a "bombshell" that "undermines the prosecution" because it disproves special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's alleged contention that Libby was the first senior administration official to reveal to a reporter that Valerie Wilson worked as a CIA analyst. Not true. For starters, a prosecutor's press conference statements are irrelevant to, and not admissible in, the trial of the case. And Fitzgerald never said Libby was the first official to have disclosed information about Valerie Wilson; he said Libby was the first official known to have disclosed such information.
More important, though, it is of no help to Libby that another administration official, "some other dude," disclosed classified information about Valerie Wilson's employment in order to discredit her husband before Libby himself did so. (By the way, Woodward's impression that the disclosure by his source was "casual" proves nothing about whether the smearing official knew that the information being leaked was classified.) Despite the impression newspaper readers may carry away from the flap over Woodward, Libby is not charged with being the first to disclose Valerie Wilson's employment; he's not charged with disclosing anything at all. And in a criminal trial, it is the charges that define the issues. What, exactly, are those charges?
There are five counts. Count 1 charges Libby with obstructing justice by deceiving the grand jury about when and how he "acquired and subsequently disclosed to the media information concerning the employment of Valerie Wilson by the CIA." Count 2 charges Libby with making false statements to the government about his conversation with NBC News reporter Tim Russert on July 10, 2003. Count 3 charges him with making false statements to a government agent about a July 12 discussion with Time magazine reporter Matt Cooper. Four and 5 charge him with making false statements to a grand jury about those conversations.
So, the essential questions on which a jury would have to pass judgment at a trial would be:
1. Did Libby make the statements that the indictment alleges he made?
2. Did the statements relate to an issue that was material -- that is, important to the investigation?
3. Were those statements true when Libby made them?
4. If the statements were not true, did Libby make them deliberately, knowing they were false? In other words, did he lie on purpose or did he simply make a mistake?
These, and only these, are the questions the jury would consider. As to Count 2, for example, the indictment says that Libby offered the following account to FBI agents in the fall of 2003:
"During a conversation with Tim Russert of NBC News on July 10 or 11, 2003, Russert asked Libby if Libby was aware that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA. Libby responded to Russert that he did not know that, and Russert replied that all the reporters knew it. Libby was surprised by this statement because, while speaking with Russert, Libby did not recall that he previously had learned about Wilson's wife's employment from the Vice President."
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