Fitzgerald speaks

October 28, 2005

The Fitzgerald press conference has begun. The WaPo is running a video feed live, in case you aren’t near a TV.

More soon.

Update: Fitzgerald, to his credit, went over an hour, without notes, explaining the charges and answering questions. Wolf Blitzer described it as a “commanding” performance and it was a fair description.

There were a few remarks of note. For example, everyone is anxious to know what may happen to those still under investigation. Fitzgerald said the “substantial bulk” of his work has been “completed.” Does this mean Karl Rove is off the hook? Hard to say, Fitzgerald said he “wasn’t quite done,” but wouldn’t comment on anyone not mentioned in the “four corners of the indictment.”

Fitzgerald took an interesting approach responding to the idea that the Libby indictment didn’t address the root leak itself. During an extended baseball metaphor, Fitzgerald cast himself as an umpire with dirt thrown in his eyes. In other words, he wanted to investigate the leak in more detail, but Libby kept lying and made that impossible. Asked if obstruction/perjury/false testimony were somehow “lesser” crimes, Fitzgerald said, “That talking point won’t fly.”

On several occasions (at least five, by my count), Fitzgerald emphasized national security and the integrity of classified materials for all of our benefit. If right-wing talking points suggest that this scandal had no victims, Fitzgerald’s remarks say otherwise.

As for whether he’ll prepare a report, Fitzgerald said he couldn’t and won’t. Those working under the independent counsel statute had different guidelines, and his mandate is to invesgtigate, charge if necessary, and go home.

Towards the very end, Fitzgerald made it quite clear that there was no “political” pressure at any point during his investigation, though he laughed and acknowledged that he’s learned a great deal about DC’s political culture over the last two years.

All in all, I’d say this is one very impressive prosecutor. If the GOP smear machine plans to go after Fitzgerald, they’ll fail.

Update 2: Here’s the transcript.

Can you link to an archived online copy somewhere soon? I can’t watch from work but really want to see it in its full glory after work tonight. Thanks.

  • Already a very interesting part, that might have slipped by. There was a statement at about 11:40am where a crime behind the indicted crime was hinted at. I’ll try to find the exact part of the text…

  • You’ve got to admit, it’s kind of funny to watch Bushy run away when the going gets rough. It’s like the little kid who used to say “I’m taking my bat, my ball, and I’m going home!” Wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

  • CB, Rawstory is reporting that Fitzgerald is going to continue the investigation, with another sitting grand jury. Have you heard anything on that? I would link, but I screw up the coments section when I do.

  • CB

    If this, the indictment, is too long, please feel free to yank it.

    AYM

    [Editor’s Note: Invitation accepted. Sorry, AYM, it’s just too long for the comments section. Readers can take a look at the indictment in a pdf here or online here.]

  • Have you heard anything on that?

    Yeah, I saw the same Raw Story item, but Fitzgerald’s remarks during his press conference suggest it’s not quite that simple. To hear Fitzgerald tell it, a separate grand jury is “available” if need be, but that’s “routine” under any investigation.

    As I understand it, there’s no real sense of how this might proceed either way. Investigators will continue the probe and another grand jury may be called upon to issue more indictments if the need arises. But will that happen? Outside of Fitzgerald’s office, no one has any idea.

    My guess — just pure speculation, based on Fitzgerald’s press conference — is that there won’t be any more indictments. Whatever Rove did in the 11th hour to avoid indictment may very well have worked.

  • I just don’t know what to think about Rove. He’s no altar boy and has enough skeletons in his closet to populate his own graveyard. If he’s not going to be indicted, then who did he sell out to save his own skin? Libby is already in the bag, so it would have to be somebody pretty important to make it worth the prosecutor’s time.

    Could it be Bolton? That would be sweet, indeed.

  • I wanted to put the Plame Game into prespective and try to understand what happened Scooter. So, I went over to David Horowitz’s blog to get some insight on the matter. You will all be intereseted in knowing that what he sees is,

    … A rogue CIA set out to sabotage Bush’s war by undermining his credibility. Niger was a target of opportunity. It seems that Saddam through the French actually had a document about Niger uranium forged and delivered to the Bush administration as a way of trapping (at least so we have recently learned). A leftist named Plame illegally recommended her leftist husband for a mission to Niger to check on the story. Her husband came back with a false report (which a bipartisan commission has now discredited) to further undermine the President (and commander in chief of our troops in the field). The Democrats — led by Kerry and Edwards — seized on this in the middle of an election campaign to undermine the credibility of their own president and sabotage the efforts of American soldiers in Iraq to quell the terrorist resistance. (I have told this story of the Democrats’ perfidy in Unholy Alliance: Radical Islam and the American Left.) For two years this was just a press story — or rather not just a press story but the lead story in a propaganda war against America and its battle for freedom in Iraq. Shameful.

    Scooter Libby was obviously trying to protect his president from a rogue CIA operation which, in conjunction with the French and Saddam were attempting to sabotage America’s war effort and restore the fascist Ba’ath Party and its Islamic terrorist allies to power. Scooter Libby obviously has taken the fall for an Administration that can faulted on this score: Whereas abroad it has boldly and courageously taken the heat for policies that are noble and good; in the war at home it has preferred duck rather than take the enemy head on. The result is that an American doing his duty (in this case attempting to fight a covert war in the media) will probably go to jail for it. He will not be the first,

    Thus is born Scooter the martyr.
    http://www.frontpagemag.com/blog/index.asp

  • I just heard a few minutes of Sean Hannity’s radio show. He had David Boice on (along with some screamers). Boice thinks the Libby indictment is effectively the end of Fitzgerald’s investigation. I expect he’s right.

    (Hannity and his wingnut guests were, btw, in a terrible froth, lashing out at everyone they could think of. In other words, gnawing off their own limbs in frustration.)

    Politically, the matter is hardly over. Libby’s trial will be in the news for months — and not controlled like Fitz’s grand jury. Also, there is an opportunity for the media to do plenty of investigating and discovering. And regardless of the Republican scream machine, the Libby affair creates a permanently negative background and a standing contradiction to the law ‘n order claptrap Republicans like to spout. Who knows, it could even lead to a thorough examination of the fraudulent Iraq war.

  • Libby will be flipped. The threat of thirty years of being ass raped focuses a man. And who will he turn on first: Rove, Cheney, Bolton?

  • On several occasions (at least five, by my count), Fitzgerald emphasized national security and the integrity of classified materials for all of our benefit

    It’s a good thing that he feels this way, otherwise the masterminds and perpetrators might go unpunished.

    Oh, right, all but one of them did.

    And while I do agree with Fitzgerald that there are no technicalities or lesser crimes, I think when treason is committed that is the charge that should be brought.

    Are we really that unconcerned about protecting Americans?

    A covert agent was unmasked, her whole operation (dealing with nuclear weapons) was destroyed, America and the whole world are less safe because of it, and proof the Iraq war is based on lies was uncovered, and one guy lying on the stand is all we’ve got?

    I’m unsatisfied.

  • I’m with doubtful. Though I anticipated (and got) a yawner, I had hoped for more, specifically someone should have been accused of leaking Plame’s identity to the press — which, after all, DID happen. Someone should pay.

  • Rege,

    Oh my God! I thought you posted a an exaggerated paraphrasing of Horowitz, so I clicked over to see for myself.

    I’m flabbergasted! I don’t read his writing anymore, but I understood Horowitz had gotten a little nutty. I didn’t realize he’d gone completely insane.

  • Face it. We got clobbered. It’s over.

    The Republicans have won a stunning
    victory, and the Democratic strategy
    of waiting for the great implosion
    blew up in their faces as the great
    explosion.

    Will they learn? Of course not.

    This story is over, and any chance of
    getting the bastards is now gone.

    Gotta face it, and try something else,
    like maybe having an agenda or
    something weird like that to motivate
    a few voters.

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