Libby trial starts with a bang

January 23, 2007

Like Kevin Drum, I wasn’t expecting too many fireworks from Scooter Libby’s criminal trial. These showdowns are often anti-climatic, at least as far as dramatic you-can’t-handle-the-truth moments go, and while the evidence presented was sure to be fascinating, day-to-day developments would likely be fascinating only to the lawyers.

Or so I thought. With jury selection finally having wrapped up, the trial began in earnest this morning with opening statements. Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald described a White House plot to beat back Joe Wilson, leading Libby to cover up and lie about his role in leaking Valerie Plame’s identity. Libby’s attorney, meanwhile, also said there was a White House plot, just a different kind.

[Defense lawyer Ted Wells] told the jury that the White House went all out to defend [Karl] Rove against accusations he revealed Mrs. Wilson’s identity, but did not protect Libby in the same way, leading Libby to suspect that he was being singled out for blame in the matter. “[Mr. Libby] was concerned about being the scapegoat,” Wells said. “Mr. Libby said to the vice president, ‘People in the White House are trying to set me up, people in the White House are trying to make me a scapegoat.’ People in the White House are trying to protect a man named Karl Rove, the president’s right-hand man,” Wells said.

Wells said he will present a note written by Dick Cheney himself about a conversation with Libby. In part, the note says, “not going to protect one staffer and sacrifice the guy that was asked to stick his neck in the meat grinder because of the incompetence of others.” Wells continued: “The person to be protected was Karl Rove…Karl Rove was President Bush’s right-hand person. His fate was important to the Republican party if they were going to stay in office. He had to be protected…the person to be sacrificed was Scooter Libby.”

Get the sense this trial could make matters even worse for the Bush White House?

Wait, it gets better (or worse from the White House’s perspective).

MSNBC’s David Schuster, who has been covering the Plame scandal very closely for quite a while, said prosecutors have “astounding” evidence that should raise eyebrows throughout the political establishment, even among “those who have been following this case.” Among the new claims:

* “Vice President Cheney himself directed Scooter Libby to essentially go around protocol and deal with the press and handle press himself…to try to beat back the criticism of administration critic Joe Wilson.”

* Cheney personally “wrote out for Scooter Libby what Libby should say in a conversation with Time magazine reporter Matt Cooper.”

* “Scooter Libby destroyed a note from Vice President Cheney about their conversations and about how Vice President Cheney wanted the Wilson matter handled.”

I don’t want to get my hopes up, but outside of Libby, who’s facing possible jail time, it sounds as if Dick Cheney has quite a bit on the line with this trial.

FDL is live-blogging the proceedings, Slate’s John Dickerson is in the courtroom, and MSNBC’s Shuster is offering extensive coverage as well.

Stay tuned.

Go get ’em, Fitz! Sic ’em!! 🙂

  • Good for Scooter to try and take everyone down with him.

    Hopefully there will be a lot of room for all the co-conspirators in prison (of the Pound Me In The Ass variety, if we’re lucky.)

  • Why wouldn’t the defense’s discovery of exculpatory evidence implicating someone else lead to the US Attorney indicting that someone else?

  • The way things are going for the Republicans, they’ll have to fold up the tent and start a new party. These clowns will hopefully be kept out of power for at least a generation.

  • Not Darth Vadar…Boris Baddinoff.

    I think Karl Rove is toast and Cheney will have to go. Libby’s own lawyer is thowing Turd Blossom under the bus, and implicating the VP at the same time.

    Fitz’ cross examination of defense witnesses should be better than I don’t know what.

    Any idea who the new VP will be?

  • Re: #3 – I suspect because guys like Fitzgerald don’t indict unless they believe they already have a bulletproof case. I remember watching the Libby indictment announcement and I got a strong impression that this was the standard he used with Libby. The “exculpatory evidence”, barring my ignorance of the word exculpatory, probably isn’t enough yet to prove beyond a reasonable doubt and therefore to indict anyone else. Hense, no other indictments so far.

    It’s too bad we can’t convince Fitzgerald to use the Bush administration’s own standards and just lock them all in a black hole without due process or access to a lawyer, forever.

  • Yep, if Cheney goes, it’s going to be Lieberman. It just ties up too many loose ends for Bush; he’s more loyal than the President’s dog Barney, and utterly without shame in defending him. On top of that, his appointment would leave his Senate seat vacant, with a Republican appointed by the Republican governor, Judi Rell, splitting the Senate 50/50 and making a conviction on impeachment charges virtually impossible – because of the new Vice President’s seat as President of the Senate – without a whole bunch of defections from the Republican camp.

    Crazy times, crazy times.

  • Oh please. If Shrub put the pro-choice Lieberman in the VP slot, the wingnuts would have a fit. I don’t care what his Iraq position is.

  • this could be where Bush finally throws the wing-nuts under the bus. After all, it’s not as if he needs them any more. The big question will be: “Who replaces Rove?” If Cheney goes, he’ll bring Rove down with him, for sure….

  • Steve, George “QUACK” Bush isn’t the target anymore, the RNC is. And the Republicrooks can’t win without the religious morons. There aren’t enough rich voters to cover the loss.

    But this is going to be VERY interesting. Bush would throw Barney under a bus to keep from being indicted.

  • I’m quite sure they would, although you may be forgetting his comment about how easy it was for a rape victim to just find another hospital if their first “choice” opted not to dispense emergency contraception. If the Libby trial plays out in such a way that Cheney is forced from office (whether by impeachment or resignation), I just can’t imagine past abortion stances being relevant to either Bush or whatever Republicans are left loyal to the party. We’re not talking about a party nomination here, we’re talking about the long-term survival of one of two major national parties.

    WIth a VP removed, the path points straight to POTUS, and Bush is going to be thinking of exactly one thing: self-preservation. Lieberman would provide ostensible bi-partisan coverage as some kind of reconciliation and reach across the aisle. Republican partisans will be thinking much the same thing with their own worries about the future of their party.

    Obviously, it’s all idle speculation and I don’t know more than anyone else. I’m just trying to imagine the trauma of it all if it plays out that way, it’s going to relegate Watergate to the scrapheap of political scandals in comparison.

  • If Bush actually does make Lieberman VP, then I reverse my position on impeachment. “President Lieberman” is too much of a horror show to even contemplate. I despise the narcissistic sociopathic lying little weasel almost as much as I loath Tucker Carlson.

  • So, one wonders if we have the set up here for full-on raging intra-GOP warfare that pits the Cheneyites on one side and GWB (backed up by Poppy) on the other.

  • I have a couple of questions. When Fitzgerald let Rove off the hook last June, wasn’t there a little something about “unless something comes up”? So. . . the prosecution could bring out information which could lead to a Rove indictment?

    Also, re Cheney, did he ever appear before the Grand Jury, or was he ever questioned under oath by Fitzgerald or the FBI? Some legal scholars are wondering why, if Fitzgerald is showing Cheney had a large role, he was not named as an unindicted co-conspirator with Libby.

  • Yep, if Cheney goes, it’s going to be Lieberman.

    Not gonna happen. Why? Because it would mean less power and perks of priveledge for Lieberman. He knows he can’t win a presidential election which means for him to continue to enjoy his “power” he will have to remain a senator.

  • My bad. I meant to say, So. . the defense could bring out information which could lead to a Rove indictment?

  • What better way for the weasel to cap a career as a spoiler? The man really does make me violently ill.

    I’m still trying to wrap my brain around the first day of the trial. If Libby rolls over and cops a plea, he could very possibly topple the administration. He knows where all the bodies (figurative and literal) are buried and if he cooperated with a congressional investigation under oath… oy vey. The Bushies would be trampling each other to death just to get out the door.

  • In many cases the opening statement is the case. The prosecutor, who gets to go first, can win it all right there and the rest is just pose down.

  • “Funny”, how just a few short months ago, Libby was saying he didn’t lie under oath intentionally; he simply forgot the sequence of events, because he was so busy. Now, his defence is sooo totally different and his memory seems to have returned.

    Nothing better to help one concentrate than a jail sentence hanging over one 🙂 This will be fun to watch.

  • (of the Pound Me In The Ass variety, if we’re lucky.)

    At the risk of being the toad in the punch bowl–compelled prison buggery is no joke–it is a major scandal and a huge blot on our pretense to being a civilized society.

  • Back on subject, this might be a good time and look at the pictures of Mrs. Libbey at the time of his indictment. She knew he was being made to take a dive, and was not happy about it.

  • I agree that prison rape is no joke, yet when it comes to Bush, Cheney and the gang I find myself willing to accept about any standard of punishment whatsoever. I still think the guillotine would be the most appropriate end to their careers, though, in a very large public site in Washington, with a festive atmosphere to celebrate the rebirth of democracy. He wants to be a king, let him go out like a king.

    • Comments are closed.