Only the Beginning
Some thoughts after reading Lewis Libby's indictment and watching Patrick Fitzgerald's news conference on CSpan last night:
Fitzgerald is the real deal. His explanation of why perjury, obstruction of justice and giving false statements are major crimes in a case like this further exposes the shame of comments from people like Kay Bailey Hutchinson that they are mere "technicalities". He put it as plainly as it could be put: When you investigate a crime, you need to have facts to evaluate whether a crime was committed. The whole system is based on that idea. When people lie to a grand jury, the whole process becomes untenable. Simple.
What's more, Fitzgerald's explanation regarding the importance of keeping CIA agents' identities secret was equally simple and effective. These people put their lives on the line to do tough work that in most cases will never, can never, be recognized. The desperate denizens of the GOP are screaming that nobody has been charged with that actual crime, which is irrelevant to Libby's lies under oath (and begs the question of why a savvy man like Libby lied under oath about it), but also leaves me wondering what all those people will end up saying if somebody actually does end up being indicted on charges related to the outing of Valerie Wilson.
Finally, Fitzgerald's press conference was a tour de force in the sense that the guy gave absolutely nothing to the press beyond what his scope of authority was. No Ken Starr-style grandstanding or leaking during the investigation itself. Fitzgerald ran an investigation, and when somebody didn't come clean he charged them with that specific crime. Nothing more, nothing less, so far. Certainly no moral crusade or larger commentary about politics or Washington personalities. He asked people to come in and tell the truth, and we know at least one person did not do that. And from the looks of the statements in that indictment, I'd say he's got Libby dead to rights.
Now, some thoughts about the indictment itself. As TPM has been covering today, there are some items in the indictment that don't appear to be germane to the charges as they relate to Libby. Specifically, the part about a conversation that was had on Air Force 2 regarding how Libby should respond to reporter's queries about Joe Wilson's trip to Niger. I'm not an attorney, obviously, but as I understand it a necessary component for charging anyone with outing Plame as an officer is that they had to understand she was covert at the time her name was given to reporters. If a strategy session was held to discuss how to "deal with" Wilson, and that conversation included a discussion of "outing" Wilson's wife's covert status, then that discussion could be the lynchpin for charges relating to outing Valerie Plame.
The question then becomes, who was involved in that discussion on Air Force 2, and did they know about Valerlie Plame's covert status? If they knew she was covert and they discussed giving her name to the press as a way to either smear Wilson via nepotism or retaliate against Wilson by exposing his wife's cover, then you've got grounds for charges relating to outing Plame, and perhaps Conspiracy charges as well.
Remember, it doesn't matter that Tenet told Cheney, or Cheney told Libby. Those conversations aren't illegal. The crime would only occur if people who knew she was covert discussed a strategy to blow her cover. The motive wouldn't even matter at that point, legally.
Why else would that paragraph be in the Libby indictment? Can't wait to find out.
Finally, the chatter about the Italian forgeries has grown into a small roar, and it will only get louder next week when Silvio Berlusconi visits from Italy. That will be a fun press conference, if they have one, which I somewhat doubt at this point. Certainly not in front of people who don't have scripted questions, at least. Senator Jay Rockefeller has come out loud about why we haven't investigated where the forgeries are from, and the clamor will only grow louder. Pat Roberts, R-KS will look very bad, as will a lot of other Senators from both parties who signed off on not investigating the forgeries with any sincerity.
Those forgeries are what they fear most, I'm sure. Those 16 words in the State of the Union Address might well lead to an update of the famous image of Nixon getting onto his helicopter and riding off into infamy.
Libby first. Cheney second. Rove third. Then who?
10:31:16 PM 
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