Fitzmas to be a Total Bust?
According to Clarice Feldman, it sounds like there are some pretty serious problems with Patrick Fitzgerald's case.
posted by LadybugUSA at 10:11 AM
Saturday, February 04, 2006
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3 Comments:
Carol, just out of curiousity can you vouch for Clarice Feldman's ability as a journalist dealing with legal affairs? I ask merely because the piece you cite is fairly awful, and I am wondering if it is a one time thing or if Ms. Feldman is incompetent.
Anyway, just a quick example of meaningless words that are full of sound and fury but signify nothing. Ms. Feldman wrote, "In Exhibit C of the responses to discovery requests by Libby, the Special Prosecutor indicates only four reporters were questioned: Woodward, Miller, Cooper and Novak. Many more knew that Plame was engaged by the CIA – and have said so – and were never questioned."
In exhibit C, the Special Prosecutor turned over the names of the reporters questioned that establish that Scooter lied to the FBI (a crime), lied to the Grand Jury (a crime), and obstructed justice (a crime). Although Scooter's attorney asked for all materials gathered from reporters, he is only entitled to evidence relating to the charges filed against him (and exculpatory evidence), and that is what Patrick Fitzgerald turned over. He's not entitled to a grand fishing expedition through all of Fitzgerald's investigation.
Either Ms. Feldman doesn't understand the rules of discovery, she is choosing to serve as Ted Wells' mouthpiece, or both. In any case, given such a blatant error/misrepresentation on such a simple matter, it would serve one well to take her other legal opinions with a shaker-full or more of salt.
For a sample of some of the interesting tidbits that Clarice and Carol forgot to mention, you can go here.
Remember, Scooter Libby is charged with lying to the Grand Jury, lying to the FBI, and obstructing justice. Let me just quote a snippet from the WaPo article.
"The court records show that Libby denied to a grand jury that he ever mentioned Plame or her CIA job to then-White House press secretary Ari Fleischer or then-New York Times reporter Judith Miller in separate conversations he had with each of them in early July 2003. The records also suggest that Libby did not disclose to investigators that he first spoke to Miller about Plame in June 2003, and that prosecutors learned of the nature of the conversation only when Miller finally testified late in the fall of 2005."
If this report can be trusted, it sounds like Scooter lied to the Grand Jury and the investigators (FBI). Yep, it sounds like a "total bust" to me.
More from the recently released court documents that Carol and Clarice forgot to tell you...
"Newly released court papers could put holes in the defense of Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, in the Valerie Plame leak case. Lawyers for Libby, and White House allies, have repeatedly questioned whether Plame, the wife of White House critic Joe Wilson, really had covert status when she was outed to the media in July 2003. But special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald found that Plame had indeed done 'covert work overseas' on counterproliferation matters in the past five years, and the CIA 'was making specific efforts to conceal' her identity, according to newly released portions of a judge's opinion." [Cite]
What a total bust.
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