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Will Cheney Testify for Libby?

By Jeralyn, Section Lewis Libby Trial Coverage
Posted on Sat Feb 03, 2007 at 02:00:03 PM EST
Tags: Libby Trial Coverage (all tags)
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Doubts are growing in the blogosphere that Dick Cheney will in fact be a witness for Scooter Libby at his trial. Marcy (Empty Wheel) explores this today at Huffington Post and concludes Cheney won't be called.

Marcy reminds us that FBI Agent Bond testified Thursday that Libby told the FBI in his second FBI interview in the fall of 2003 that he and Cheney might have discussed leaking Plame's identity to reporters.

As soon as Libby admitted to talking with Cheney about leaking Plame's identity, he committed to one of two scenarios: either he and Cheney both forgot Plame's identity, both learned it "as if it were new" from journalists, and thought that a piece of news that was forgettable in June was so newsworthy in July that they should share it with journalists. Or, he and Cheney learned of Plame's identity through classified channels and a month later decided to share that information with journalists. We're in the realm of an IIPA violation, folks, barring Cheney claiming that he declassified Valerie Wilson's identity ... without telling her (which is where I think Cheney's prepared to go, if it gets that far--that should make the Wilsons' civil suit all the more delectable, I think).

I think there's another reason Cheney will back off from testifying -- and it goes to the heart of the case against Libby.

I think Fitzgerald will argue the perjury, false statement and obstruction issues are based not on whether Libby forgot, but on what he pretended to remember. In other words, it's not that Libby's memory was weak, but that he cooked up a false story. He didn't simply say "I forgot" or "I'm not sure" or "I can't recall." He supplied exacting, self-serving, and, apparently, false details about his conversations with reporters.

Maybe Dick Cheney's lawyer will have a heart-to-heart with Team Libby this weekend and advise them that based on Libby's mis-statements, he doesn't see how his testimony can help Libby. Cheney's lawyer must be aware by now that the issue to Fitz is Libby's mis-statements and not his omissions or failure to recall and that the "throw Libby under the bus" scenario actually supports a motive for Libby to lie rather than demonstrates his not having a motive.

With Fitz arguing to the jury that Libby didn't forget, he made up a story, I just don't see how Dick Cheney's lawyer will allow him to be put in the middle.

< Taking The Bait: War With Iran Would Only Come If We Stay In Iraq | Dueling Libby Motive Briefs Filed >

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    Will Cheney Testify for Libby? | 2 comments (2 topical)

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    Futility efforts in the face of treason (none / 0) (#1)
    by Aaron on Sun Feb 04, 2007 at 03:45:57 AM EST
    This entire trial is nothing more than an exercise in futility, pursuing Scooter Libby for perjury is a waste of time and taxpayer dollars for everyone besides the lawyers who are getting paid to prosecute and defend, and their support structure.

    Even if Libby and Dick Cheney were convicted of treason, on irrefutable evidence, our traitorous fascist dictator of a president will just pardon them when/if he leaves office, rendering the entire judicial process moot.

    In the end, this trial will have no practical impact whatsoever, and be nothing more than a demonstration of how the legal system in this country is virtually impotent, how laws are utterly unenforceable and conventional morality has been suspended by the power of a tyrannical executive branch.

    It doesn't even look like the lawyers are interested in discussing it, judging by the number of comments posted here.

    I mourn for my country, and the effect that this presidency will have on the future of the United States.  Eight years wasted, eight years going backwards, eight years of criminal depravity by those who saw nothing wrong with betraying the people of the United States in their quest to pursue the conservative neocolonial agenda.  

    We now have a Congress controlled by Democrats, and what have they done, nothing.  The Republicans might as well have retained control of the House and Senate, for all the good the Democrats have done and will do. It's a game, they play their games while the people of the United States watch like spectators in our own country.  We've lost our grip on control, and there's no going back, no reason for those who've wrestled power from our hands to ever give it back.

    In effect, the United States of America is now emulating the People's Republic of China, for we are a republic in name only.  Our government would leave us to our own devices while they pursue power for its own sake, only stopping to placate us when absolutely necessary, nothing more than an afterthought once the elections are completed.

    I wonder what Abraham Lincoln would say, if he were alive today to watch as the new rebirth of freedom we won with the blood of Americans in the Civil War just 142 years ago begins to slowly perish from this earth.  I imagine he would be deeply saddened for the Republic and horribly ashamed of what's become of the office of the presidency.

    How depressing :-(

    Deadeye won't testify (none / 0) (#2)
    by scribe on Sun Feb 04, 2007 at 08:29:05 AM EST
    because he knows Fitz has cross-examination set up which will almost certainly require him to take the Fifth.

    Will Cheney Testify for Libby? | 2 comments (2 topical)

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