Judge settles fight over classified info (win for Fitzgerald)

[sabra]

http://www.belleville.com/mld/belleville/news/breaking_news/16215341.htm

Judge settles fight over classified info
Associated Press

WASHINGTON - A federal judge all but resolved the protracted legal fight over classified information in the CIA leak case Monday, helping ensure the dispute would not derail former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's perjury and obstruction trial.

Libby is accused of lying to investigators about his conversations with reporters regarding a CIA operative. He says he had more pressing issues on his mind and wants to discuss classified intelligence about terrorist threats and foreign nuclear programs to bolster that argument.

Prosecutors had accused Libby of demanding so much sensitive information that the government could not safely release it - leading to a dismissal - but U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton appears to have resolved that dispute.

Walton, who rankled Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald last month by ruling that Libby must be allowed to discuss intelligence on Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, terrorism and other issues at trial, accepted Fitzgerald's proposal to limit the details Libby and his attorneys can discuss.

...

The ruling helps keep the trial on track for next month. That could still be delayed, however, if Vice President Dick Cheney and Bush aide Karl Rove claim they cannot testify because of separation-of-powers issues.

[pberq]

1. What a sham

". . .That could still be delayed, however, if Vice President Dick Cheney and Bush aide Karl Rove claim they cannot testify because of separation-of-powers issues."

Does anyone here believe there will be any kind of justice in this case?

[Chimichurri]

2. No. It's a huge waste of time and tax dollars because their will be no

justice.

[katsy]

6. Clinton couldn't claim separation of power issues

when he had to testify about the blue dress.

Wouldn't that be the precedent to make cheney testify?

[Robbien]

3. Is his defense really that he was too busy

and the Plame name slipped out because there was so many things on his mind?

So they aren't trying to prove Libby leaked, just whether he intended to leak.

Geeze.

[sabra]

4. it's not about the leak directly, he defense is that he had so much

on his mind, which led to him falsifying his testimony (some call it lying).

[sutz12]

5. I only wish...

we could separate Cheney and Rove from their power.

[patrice]

8. Don't you think Bush's recent remark about being Truman is evidence that

Rove is missing from the scene? Bush laid himself wide open on that one.

Or don't any of the people who tell him what to say know that Truman had the rest of the World behind him AND he Negotiated with our enemies.

[patrice]

7. So we're supposed to respect "Separation of Powers" when Cheney

says and ignore it when Cheney says.

[Missy Vixen]

9. This is a good thing

The fur will really fly now. There are no more impediments to a trial, and Patrick Fitzgerald has already shown that he will prevail over Libby's defense team.

IMHO, and there are many people here brighter and with lots more legal knowledge than I: Bush is between a rock and a hard place on this one. If Rove and Cheney do not testify, there will have to be a resignation. If they do, they open themselves to a cross-examination that will make what happened to Elizabeth Loftus look like an afternoon in the park. If he pardons Libby, the poltical damage will be even more incalculable, because Libby will then be asked to testify at an upcoming trial and can't take the Fifth.

Julie
still president for life of the PFEB

[Liberty Belle]

10. kicking and recommending

[DemReadingDU]

11. morning kick

[Lochloosa]

12. Libby will never stand trail. Christmas pardon coming up.

You heard it here first.

[MGKrebs]

13. I think Libby will eventually cop a plea.

He may get pardoned, but not until Dec. '08.

The question to me is, is this the end of it. Is there more Fitz is after? A plea deal would indicate yes, I think.

[Canuckistanian]

14. Well, that was a successful stall tactic

Kudos to Libby's lawyers. They kept the proceedings ground to a halt while this non-issue drags on.

Republicans - supreme masters of misdirection, ass-covering and lack of accountability

[thingfisher]

15. At one time it looked like Fitzgerals was going to blow the lid

off a lot of dirty business and we were exhilarated by his investigation. Now, it is slogging along in obscurity wrestling with all the legal ostructionism good lawyers are paid so well to employ.

I doubt anything major will be forth coming from all this, unhappily.