Group Sues to Get White House Logs

Group Sues to Get White House Logs By MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 12 minutes ago



A public-interest group has sued the Secret Service for access to White House visitor logs that the group says would show how often lobbyist Jack Abramoff met with President Bush and his staff.

Judicial Watch filed suit in U.S. District Court in Washington under the federal Freedom of Information Act, claiming that the Secret Service failed to meet a Feb. 21 deadline for releasing the records or indicating how much more time it would need.

Secret Service spokesman Tom Mazur said Tuesday that the agency was unaware of the lawsuit. He had no other comment.

Abramoff pleaded guilty in January to federal charges stemming from his lobbying practices and pledged to cooperate with investigators.

The White House has refused to say how many times Abramoff, who raised $100,000 for Bush's re-election, has been to see the president or his aides. Bush's spokesman has said Abramoff was admitted to the White House complex for "a few staff-level meetings" and Hanukkah receptions in 2001 and 2002.

The president has said he does not know Abramoff personally.

The White House logs would answer a basic question about the extent of Abramoff's ties to the White House, Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton said. The records "may show 30 visits by Jack Abramoff to the White House, or they may show three visits."

"The point is we need to get all of the facts on the table about this admitted felon's contacts with White House officials," Finton said. The lawsuit was filed last week.

One photograph has been made public, its authenticity acknowledged by the White House, that shows Bush and Abramoff. In the 2001 photo, Bush is shaking hands with the leader of an Indian tribe that was an Abramoff client. The lobbyist is in the background.

In an e-mail Abramoff sent to a magazine editor, he said he had brief conversations with Bush almost a dozen times and the president knew him well enough to make joking references to Abramoff's family.

Lobbying records obtained by the AP show his lobbying team met nearly 200 times with administration officials during the first 10 months of Bush's presidency on behalf of one of his clients, the Northern Mariana Islands.

The contacts between Abramoff's team and the administration included meetings with Attorney General John Ashcroft and policy advisers to Vice President Dick Cheney, the AP reported last year.

Three former Abramoff associates also have told The Associated Press that the lobbyist frequently told them he had strong ties to the White House through presidential confidant Karl Rove.

Rove has described Abramoff as a "casual acquaintance" since Bush took office in 2001, White House spokeswoman Erin Healy has said.


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Scooter notes ID'd CIA spy

BY JAMES GORDON MEEK
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON - Handwritten notes taken by the CIA show Vice President Cheney's top aide knew the name of CIA spy Valerie Plame a month before her cover was blown.
It appears to be the first known document in the hands of prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald that directly contradicts Lewis (Scooter) Libby's claim he learned from reporters in July 2003 that Valerie Plame was a CIA employee.

Libby, who was Cheney's chief of staff, has been indicted for perjury in the CIA leak investigation.

Plame's husband, former Ambassador Joe Wilson, was a Bush critic dispatched to Niger by the CIA in 2002 to see if Iraq had shopped for uranium. "A CIA employee assigned to provide daily intelligence briefs to the Vice President and Libby has handwritten notes indicating that Libby referred to 'Joe Wilson' and 'Valerie Wilson' by those names in conversation with the briefer on June 14, 2003," Fitzgerald wrote in a recently unsealed brief.

The filing suggests Cheney may have been present when Libby griped to his CIA briefer about agency officials slamming the veep in the press.

Seven officials have testified that Libby raised the CIA spy with them before columnist Robert Novak outed her. In the filing, Fitzgerald also revealed that his investigators also confiscated computers.

Meanwhile, a judge overseeing Libby's perjury trial ruled yesterday that Libby won't get any copies of the secret daily intelligence briefings for Cheney and President Bush.

Originally published on February 28, 2006

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Judge OKs press subpoenas in CIA leak case

Libby defense aims to show any false statements were result of confusion

NBC News and news services
Updated: 3:41 p.m. ET Feb. 27, 2006
WASHINGTON - The judge in the CIA leak case said Monday that lawyers on both sides in the perjury trial of former White House aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby will be allowed to subpoena journalists and news organizations.

The issue of calling reporters and news organizations to supply information or testify in the trial was raised at a hearing on Friday.

At the hearing, Libby, who worked for Vice President Dick Cheney, won the right to review his handwritten notes for a nine-month period surrounding the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's name.

Judge Reggie Walton seemed skeptical about a second request by the defense that it also be given highly classified documents known as the President's Daily Brief for a similar period. The judge deferred a final ruling on that request, which Libby's defense team says is essential in demonstrating that he was busy with other national security matters at the time of the Plame leak.

Libby, 55, was indicted last year on charges that he lied about how he learned Plame’s identity and when he subsequently told reporters.

The CIA operative’s identity was published in July 2003 by syndicated columnist Robert Novak after Plame’s husband, former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson, accused the Bush administration of twisting intelligence about Iraq’s efforts to buy uranium in Niger. The year before, the CIA had sent Wilson to Niger to determine the accuracy of the uranium reports.

A strategy to 'sabotage' case?
Defense lawyers have said that if Libby's statements to investigators were untrue, it was a case of innocent confusion or faulty memory because of his preoccupation with pressing national security matters at the time.

Walton said he is concerned that Libby’s request could “sabotage” the case because President Bush probably would invoke executive privilege and refuse to turn over the classified reports.

“The vice president — his boss — said these are the family jewels,” the judge said, referring to Cheney’s past description of the daily briefings. “If the executive branch says, 'This is too important to the welfare of the nation and we’re not going to comply,’ the criminal prosecution goes away.”

Ted Wells, one of Libby's lawyers, said the judge needs to take time to make sure Libby gets the evidence he needs to defend himself. “If it’s done in a quick and dirty way, he’s going to be convicted,” Wells said.

The court set an April 7 deadline for any reporters or news organizations to produce the requested items. Any motions to quash or modify the subpoenas must also be filed by that time.

A trial date has been set for January 2007.

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Georgia congressman failed to declare Abramoff client trip, then supported client's efforts

John Byrne and Ron Brynaert
Published: February 27, 2006

A Georgia congressman omitted a trip paid for by a client of fallen lobbyist Jack Abramoff from travel disclosure forms, even though he declared it on his personal income filings, RAW STORY has found.

The congressman -- Rep. John Linder (R-GA) -- took a five-day trip to Puerto Rico with his wife in August 1998. The trip was paid for by Future of Puerto Rico, Inc., a nebulous lobbying group that sought to advance Puerto Rican statehood and other island causes. The group was a client of Jack Abramoff, the former conservative superlobbyist who pleaded guilty to fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy to bribe public officials in January.

Linder, the longest-serving Republican in the Georgia House delegation, was first elected in 1992. He sits on several powerful committees -- including Ways and Means and Homeland Security -- and was chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee from 1996-1998.

Shortly after trips taken by former Majority Leader Tom DeLay began to attract attention in the media last March, the Associated Press reported that 43 House members scrambled to publicly report their own trips paid for by special interests. Linder belatedly filed for nine trips, but the Puerto Rican trip remained markedly absent.

Linder should have filed a travel form shortly after his trip and could have corrected it when when he belatedly filed for other trips last year. Failing to properly report sponsored travel is a violation of House rules.

Linder’s office did not return repeated calls for comment.

Abramoff directly lobbied for Future of Puerto Rico from January 1998 to the year’s end in 2000, earning $620,000 for his then-firm, Preston Gates.

Abramoff’s team lobbied Congress to pass a bill which would have allowed Puerto Ricans to vote on whether they wanted to become a U.S. state. The prospective plebiscite fueled tension among Republicans, many of whom saw Puerto Rico as fertile field for Democratic politicians. With the help of Abramoff and former Christian Coalition chief Ralph Reed, the bill miraculously passed in the House by a single vote --to everyone’s surprise.

Linder did not support the bill. As chairman of a Republican Conference study committee, he helped delay its consideration by the full House and let opposition to the measure ferment. Eventually, however, he acceded to demands that it reach the House floor.

"Hey, it's come through the system," Linder said. "It's what you have to do."

On Mar. 4, 1998, the House passed the U.S-Puerto Rico Political Status Act. The Georgia Republican voted nay.

That August, Linder flew to Puerto Rico with his wife on behalf of Future of Puerto Rico, Inc. The group recently attracted attention for a trip taken by a staffer to Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA), who claimed that Future of Puerto Rico had paid for a trip that had actually been paid for by Abramoff’s firm.

Little is known about the group. It was advanced by wealthy Puerto Rican interests, and appears to be connected with another political action committee connected to affluent island donors. That group, Newstar PAC, gave hefty $5,000 donations to former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) and Rep. Doolittle, both fingered in the Abramoff probe.

Linder did not receive a contribution from Newstar. But following his trip to Puerto Rico, he supported all island measures Abramoff was lobbying on that came to a House vote.

Linder vote yes on the Work Improvement Act of 1999, the Financial Freedom Act of 1999, the Defense Department Appropriations Act of 2001 and the Community Renewal & New Markets Act of 2000. Abramoff registered to lobby on all the measures according to forms filed with the Senate by Future of Puerto Rico, Inc.

The Puerto Rican plebiscite bill never reached the Senate floor.

Linder received no donations from Abramoff and says they have never met. He did, however, collect $1,000 from one of Abramoff’s tribal clients. Following Abramoff’s guilty plea, he declined to return the money or donate it to charity, explaining that it had already been spent.

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Update 4: Identity of Official to Be Kept From Libby

Associated Press
By TONI LOCY , 02.24.2006, 07:02 PM

Former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, charged with perjury in the CIA leak case, cannot be told the identity of another government official who is said to have divulged a CIA operative's identity to reporters, a federal judge ruled Friday.

At the same time, U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton said Libby could have copies of notes he took during an 11-month period in 2003 and 2004 while serving as chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney.

The judge also set the stage for a showdown in late April over the defense's plans to subpoena reporters and news organizations for notes and other documents in the leak of Valerie Plame's identity.

During a hearing Friday afternoon, Walton said Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald can keep secret the other government official's identity because that person has not been charged and has a right to privacy.

The judge put off deciding whether Libby can have access to highly classified presidential daily briefs, summaries of intelligence on threats against the United States that Libby and Cheney received six days a week from a CIA official.

Walton said he is concerned that Libby's request could "sabotage" the case because President Bush probably will invoke executive privilege and refuse to turn over the classified reports.

"The vice president - his boss - said these are the family jewels," the judge said, referring to Cheney's past description of the daily briefings. "If the executive branch says, 'This is too important to the welfare of the nation and we're not going to comply,' the criminal prosecution goes away."

Libby, 55, was indicted last year on charges that he lied about how he learned Plame's identity and when he subsequently told reporters. Libby's trial is set for January 2007.

The CIA operative's identity was published in July 2003 by syndicated columnist Robert Novak after Plame's husband, former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson, accused the Bush administration of twisting intelligence about Iraq's efforts to buy uranium in Niger. The year before, the CIA had sent Wilson to Niger to determine the accuracy of the uranium reports.

Libby's lawyers and Fitzgerald disagreed over whether the unidentified government official - who does not work at the White House - was referring to Plame or her husband when he said, "Everyone knows," during a taped interview with investigators.

The defense said the official meant that most reporters knew that Plame worked at the CIA, as Libby testified before a federal grand jury. But Fitzgerald said the reference was to Wilson, who was not identified in initial media reports about the trip to Niger.

Ted Wells, another Libby lawyer, said the judge shouldn't worry about provoking the president, the CIA or the media and needs to take time to make sure Libby gets the evidence he needs to defend himself.

"If it's done in a quick and dirty way, he's going to be convicted," Wells said.

Walton denied a defense request to stop Fitzgerald from filing information that only the judge can review, such as strategy memos and classified information that he wants withheld from Libby's legal team. Walton said he needs to see what Fitzgerald is withholding from the defense to ensure the prosecutor is making the correct call.

The defense was told that the White House had recently located and turned over about 250 pages of e-mails from the vice president's office. Fitzgerald, in a letter last month to the defense, had cautioned Libby's lawyers that some e-mails might be missing because the White House's archiving system had failed.

The 2 1/2-hour hearing not only kicked off the battle over how much classified information a jury will hear when Libby's case goes to trial, but also showed how cumbersome it is to deal with such secret evidence.

When Wells tried to hand Walton a blue pouch - complete with a key - containing classified documents, a court security officer called the judge's clerk over and whispered instructions, presumably on its handling.

"I would not be a good safe-breaker," Walton joked as he fumbled with the pouch's lock before opening it.

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Fitzgerald discloses White House recently turned over 250 pages of emails in CIA leak inquiry

John Byrne
Published: February 24, 2006

Special Prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald said in a court hearing Friday that the White House "recently located and turned over" 250 pages of emails from the Office of Vice President Dick Cheney, according to an article filed by the Associated Press Friday evening.

The AP article focused primarily on the fact that U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton told Vice President's former chief of staff I. Lewis Libby that he was not entitled to know the name of the individual who "outed" CIA officer Valerie Plame Wilson.

Libby was told, however, that he could have copies of notes he took during 2003 and 2004 while he served as Cheney's chief of staff.

The AP mentions little more than the fact that 250 pages of emails were turned over by the Vice President's office and does not indicate when. The White House was enjoined to preserve and turn over all correspondence relating to the inquiry when it began in 2003.

In October 2003, then-White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales told all White House employees to turn in copies of numerous documents relating to the CIA leak investigation. It was sent after the Justice Department told the White House to hand over all records that could be relevant to investigators. According to an article at the time, the deadline was Oct. 10, 2003.

The newly-turned over emails could indicate that not all information had been divulged when the Justice Department first required the information be delivered. It could, however, also signify that Fitzgerald is seeking additional email correspondence based on information he obtained during the probe.

In a letter to Libby's lawyers last month, Fitzgerald signaled that not all emails during the period in question were properly archived -- indicating that some documents may have been lost.

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Plame Whistleblowers Targeted by Administration

Stolen from Kevin on the MRR blog ...

From Truth Out.org ...by Jason Leopold

Friday 24 February 2006

Two top Bush administration officials who played an active role in the leak of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson, have been removing from their jobs, career State Deptartment weapons experts who have spoken to investigators during the past two years about the officials role in the leak, according to a half-dozen State Department officials.

The State Department officials requested anonymity for fear of further retribution. They said they believe they are being sidelined because they have been cooperating with Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation into the outing of undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson, and have disagreed with the Bush administration's intelligence that claimed Iraq sought 500 tons of yellowcake uranium ore from Niger - an explosive piece of intelligence that was included in President Bush's January 2003, State of the Union address that was found to be based on crude forgeries, but helped pave the way to war.

The reshuffling, which has been conducted in secret since late last year, has led to a mini-revolt inside the State Department, numerous officials who work there said.

The officials who have been leading the State Department reorganization plan are Frederick Fleitz and Robert Joseph. Fleitz now works for Joseph. Both men were appointed to their positions by President Bush. They have claimed publicly that the State Department reshuffle has nothing to do with retribution, rather it is aimed at helping that branch of the federal government to better deal with 21st century threats.

Both men were directly involved in the leak of Valerie Plame Wilson, and have been targeted by Fitzgerald's probe as possible sources that unmasked Plame Wilson's identity to reporters, according to several people knowledgeable about the Fitzgerald probe and the roles Fleitz and Joseph played in the Plame Wilson leak.

At the time of the leak, Fleitz was a senior CIA Weapons Intelligence, Nonproliferation and Arms Control official as well as the chief of staff to John Bolton, the former Undersecretary of State for Arms Control, a position that Joseph was appointed to when Bolton was selected to be Ambassador to the United Nations by President Bush.

Beltway rumors have swirled for more than a year that Bolton, too, played a role in the leak, specifically, that Bolton enlisted Fleitz to obtain information from the CIA regarding Wilson's Niger trip and asked him to find out who at the agency was responsible for sending him there, sources at the CIA and State Department said.

State Department officials and other people knowledgeable about the events leading up to the Plame Wilson leak said Fleitz is the unnamed CIA official identified in the federal indictment handed up by a grand jury in October against I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney who was indicted on five counts of obstruction of justice, perjury and lying to investigators relating to his role in the leak.

The indictment states: "on or about June 11, 2003, Libby spoke with a senior officer of the CIA to ask about the origin and circumstances of Wilson's trip, and was advised by the CIA officer that Wilson's wife worked at the CIA and was believed to be responsible for sending Wilson on the trip."

State Department officials said Fleitz was in a position to obtain Plame Wilson's status as a covert CIA operative. These officials said Fleitz had told Bolton about Plame Wilson, and Bolton then shared that information with Libby and other senior aides in Vice President Cheney's office.

Moreover, State Department officials said Fleitz was one of the CIA officials who attended a meeting in February 2002, at CIA headquarters where Plame Wilson had accompanied her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who was selected to travel to Niger to investigate reports that Iraq tried to purchase uranium from Niger, according to several State Department officials who also attended the meeting.

Fleitz has been a trusted source of information to Bolton for some time. In his book, Peacekeeping Fiascoes of the 1990's: Causes, Solutions, and US Interests, Fleitz thanked Bolton for advising him on research and providing him with guidance in writing the book.

It has long been rumored that Bolton had his own connections to agents at the CIA who shared his political philosophy on Iraq. Greg Thielman, a former director at the State Department who was assigned to Bolton and entrusted with providing the former under secretary of state with intelligence information, told New Yorker journalist Seymour Hersh that Bolton had become frustrated that Thielman was not providing him the smoking gun intelligence information on Iraq that he wanted to hear.

"He surrounded himself with a hand-chosen group of loyalists, and found a way to get CIA information directly," Thielman said in Hersh's book, Chain of Command. (Page 223)

"In essence, the undersecretary (Bolton) would be running his own intelligence operation, without any guidance or support," Hersh wrote. "Eventually, Thielmann said, Bolton demanded that he and his staff have direct electronic access to sensitive intelligence, such as foreign agent reports and electronic intercepts. In previous administrations, such data had been made available to undersecretaries only after it was analyzed, usually in the specific secured offices of the INR." (Page 222)

Robert Joseph was identified last week by CIA and State Department officials as one of a handful of administration officials who was instrumental in an effort to attack the credibility of Wilson when the former ambassador started to criticize the administration's use of the Niger claims in Bush's State of the Union address.

Joseph is the former director of nonproliferation at the National Security Council who was responsible for placing the infamous "sixteen words" about Iraq's attempt to purchase uranium from Niger in Bush's speech.

Sources close to the probe said witnesses involved in the case told FBI investigators that Joseph was one of the recipients of a classified State Department memo in June 2003 that not only debunked the Niger allegations but also included a top-secret reference to Valerie Plame Wilson's work for the CIA, and that she may have been responsible for recommending that the CIA send her husband to Niger to investigate the uranium claims in February 2002.

The sources added that the witnesses testified that Joseph and then-Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley had worked directly with senior officials from Vice President Cheney's office - including Libby, Cheney's National Security Adviser John Hannah, and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove - during the month of June to coordinate a response to reporters who had phoned the vice president's office and the NSC about the administration's use of the Niger documents.

The State Department had disagreed with the White House's intelligence on Niger, saying in a number of classified documents sent to the White House since 2002 that the intelligence was suspect and should not be cited by the Bush administration to make a case that the country was attempting to develop nuclear weapons.

Now some State Department officials believe that Joseph and Fleitz are working to ensure the State Department is staffed with individuals who will support the Bush administration's foreign policies.

Fleitz and Joseph have been working in secret with other Bush appointees since last year to revamp the State Department by pushing out career weapons experts, many of whom have been interviewed by FBI investigators during the past two years probing the leak.

"The process has been gravely flawed from the outset and smacks plainly of a political vendetta against career Foreign Service and Civil Service (personnel) by political appointees," a group of employees told Undersecretary of State for Management Henrietta Fore on December 9, according to notes prepared for the meeting, Knight Ridder reported on February 7.

In response to the unprecedented shake-up, a dozen State Department officials drafted a dissent letter to Fore and W. Robert Pearson, the director general of the Foreign Service, on October 11, and "sought, but failed to get, a stay from the Justice Department to stop the plan," Knight Ridder reported.

"An inquiry by Knight Ridder has found evidence that the reorganization was highly politicized and devastated morale: One of the government's top experts on the UN International Atomic Energy Agency, which helps stem the spread of nuclear weapons but disputed the Bush administration's claims about Iraq's weapons programs, returned from two and a half years at IAEA headquarters in Vienna, Austria, and was blocked from assuming an office directorship that had been offered to him, the officials and a complaint document said," Knight Ridder added.

The position, which oversees US diplomacy related to international efforts to contain suspected nuclear-weapons programs in countries such as Iran and North Korea, went to a less qualified officer who officials said shared Bolton's views.

In the interest of fairness, if any individual named in this article believes the information written about them is untrue they will be afforded an opportunity to respond to this story in writing.

DeLay Writes Letters: It’s “Absolutely Untrue” That Abramoff Was “A Close Friend”
A handwritten letter from DeLay to his constituents, 2/6/06:




Where would anyone get the crazy idea that DeLay was close friends with Abramoff?

DeLay, Northern Mariana Islands, 1997:

When one of my closest and dearest friends, Jack Abramoff, your most able representative in Washington, D.C., invited me to the islands, I wanted to see firsthand the free-market success and the progress and reform you have made.

DeLay’s campaign to rehabilitate his credibility isn’t off to a good start.

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Lawyers Say Libby Needs to Refresh Memory on Plame Talk

By Carol D. Leonnig
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, February 23, 2006; A05

Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff was so consumed with pressing national security concerns in 2003 and 2004 that he undoubtedly forgot details of conversations he had about undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame, his defense lawyers argue in new court filings.

Attorneys for I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby insist they need hundreds of pages of classified daily briefings prepared for President Bush to show that Libby did not intentionally lie about discussing Plame with reporters, as prosecutors allege. They contend that he was preoccupied with more serious matters when the conversations took place and when investigators questioned him months later.

Libby, 55, faces charges of committing perjury, making false statements and obstructing justice in the investigation of whether administration officials broke the law by disclosing Plame's identity to the media.

"One of the central themes of Mr. Libby's defense at trial will be that any misstatements he made during his FBI interviews or grand jury testimony were not intentional, but rather the result of confusion, mistake or faulty memory," the lawyers wrote in a court document filed late Tuesday. "Given the urgent national security issues that commanded Mr. Libby's attention, it is understandable that he may have forgotten or misremembered relatively less significant events [such as] alleged snippets of conversations about Valerie Plame Wilson's employment status."

The filing also indicated that Libby, in his first grand jury appearance in early 2004, apologized, saying his memories could be inaccurate because he read 100 to 200 pages of material a day and usually worked from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.

"I can't possibly recall all of the stuff that I think is important, let alone other stuff that I don't think is as important," he said.

Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald argued in court filings last week that Libby's attorneys were attempting to derail the prosecution with a "breathtaking" request for nearly a year's worth of Presidential Daily Briefs, the closely guarded document that summarizes threats to the United States and is almost never released.

In announcing Libby's indictment last October, Fitzgerald accused Libby of displaying a detailed but selective memory with investigators. Libby told prosecutors he believed he learned that Plame worked at the CIA from NBC reporter Tim Russert in a telephone call in July 2003. But he forgot that Cheney had actually told him that information the previous month, and that three days before the Russert call, Libby passed it on to then-White House press secretary Ari Fleischer.

Today, defense lawyers are also expected to file a motion asking U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton, who is presiding over the case, to dismiss all charges against Libby. On Friday, Fitzgerald and the defense attorneys are scheduled to argue at a court hearing whether Fitzgerald should have to provide Libby with classified material and information about reporters and administration officials questioned in the investigation.

Libby's trial is scheduled to start in January 2007, but many legal experts predict that legal battles over such questions could delay it.

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Abramoff Journal also includes CIA Leak info (Plamegate)

Just a reminder to all who are new to this blog that we decided to also include information on the CIA Leak or better known as Plamegate. Both are about indictments and are ongoing.

We will strive to get the most updated info so that you are informed.

If you have any news we missed, please leave a comment.

Thank you

Abramoff ties to Russians probed

US inquiry widens to energy concerns
By Michael Kranish, Globe Staff | February 23, 2006

WASHINGTON -- The federal investigation into the lobbying activities of Jack Abramoff has broadened to examine his dealings with the Russian government and a pair of high-profile Russian energy company executives, according to documents made available to the Globe.

A subpoena in the case, issued this month to an Abramoff associate, says the US government is seeking information on Abramoff-related activities with ''any department, ministry, or office holder or agent of the Russian government." The subpoena, which has not been made public, was given to the Globe by a person who is involved in the case.

Abramoff's work on behalf of Indian tribes has been widely scrutinized, but his work for Russian interests has received far less public notice.

It is legal for foreigners to hire lobbyists, but Abramoff's dealings in this area have come under federal investigation because his fees were so large and because investigators are examining whether he might have bribed members of Congress.

Abramoff pleaded guilty recently to conspiracy, fraud, and tax evasion in connection with a scheme to direct funds from his Indian clients toward government officials.

The subpoena seeks information about ties between Abramoff-related groups and a Moscow energy giant that is called Naftasib, a major supplier to the Russian military.

Investigators have asked for any information about Abramoff's dealings with two top Naftasib executives, Alexander Koulakovsky and Marina Nevskaya. Senior Naftasib executives helped arrange a trip Abramoff took to Moscow in 1997 with former House majority leader Tom DeLay, a longtime Abramoff friend.

The subpoena specifically requests information about dealings between the Abramoff associate receiving the subpoena and DeLay.

Separately, several former Abramoff lobbying partners have told the Globe that a key connection between Abramoff and Russia is an obscure Dutch firm called Voor Huisen.

Voor Huisen was one of Abramoff's biggest clients, paying $2.1 million in lobbying fees to Abramoff and his partners from 2001 to 2004, according to public records that were filed by Abramoff in the US Senate.

But there has been no explanation as to why the company had paid such large fees, and Abramoff's former partners say they are not aware of work that would justify that level of payment.

Voor Huisen has been shrouded in mystery, and is rarely mentioned in the thousands of articles about Abramoff. A Dutch magazine, Vrij Nederland, reported last month that Voor Huisen was a shell company that had no activity and no assets. Dutch records do not list any shareholders.

However, several of Abramoff's former partners, who also lobbied for Voor Huisen, said in interviews this month that they were told the Dutch company was connected to Naftasib executives.


A private housing link
Abramoff's lobbying records also suggest that the money paid to Abramoff by Voor Huisen was used to promote Russian interests. One lobbying report said Abramoff was hired by Voor Huisen to ''promote private housing in the former Soviet Union and other projects in energy and economics." Other reports that Abramoff filed said he lobbied for Voor Huisen on matters ranging from aviation safety to disaster preparedness to unspecified issues ''pertaining to defense and security."

Since Voor Huisen has no business of its own, the work done by Abramoff's firm, and the high fees he collected, made Abramoff's partners concerned that hidden interests were behind the firm and its payouts.

Ronald Platt, who was registered as a lobbyist with Abramoff on the Voor Huisen account, said in an interview that he was originally told by Abramoff or another colleague -- he doesn't remember which -- that the firm was a Dutch enterprise with an interest in housing, but that he later learned that it had ties to the Russians.

''I was told that they had an interest in developing moderate-priced middle-income housing in Russia," Platt said. ''This would be a good thing to bring stability to Russia.

''The company, in order to pursue this," Platt added, ''was hoping to get funds from the US government because it was theoretically in the interest of the US government. At the time, I said, 'I think this will never happen.' "

Platt said that after he left the firm where he and Abramoff worked, Greenberg Traurig, he was ''made aware that this may have been nothing but a paper corporation and that people who purported to have owned it were either one or two Russians" -- Koulakovsky and Nevskaya.


'Agent of influence'
Two other lobbyists who also worked on the Voor Huisen account with Abramoff said in interviews that they, too, were told by either Abramoff or another colleague that the company was tied to the Russians.

Abramoff's work on Russian affairs began in the mid-1990s, according to J. Michael Waller, the former editor of a Washington-based newsletter, Russia Reform Monitor. Waller said he was contacted by two Abramoff associates in 1997, and was asked to help organize Abramoff's trip with DeLay to Russia.

''I was told by two of Abramoff's colleagues that he wanted to represent the Russian government," Waller said. He said Abramoff's colleagues explained that Abramoff was working for Naftasib, the Russian energy company, and that ''if he performed well on Naftasib then the Russian government would retain him."

That made Waller uncomfortable, he added, because he had read Russian documents that said Naftasib supplied oil to the Russian military, so he declined to help Abramoff plan the trip.

''I was concerned that Abramoff was going to become an agent of influence for the Russian government and that he would mask that relationship," Waller said.


Confirmations in e-mails
E-mails released in the course of a Senate investigation into Abramoff confirm that he had Russian clients. In one, he mentions receiving payments from unnamed Russians. In another, he wrote that he was surprised that unnamed Russians often came to the United States and visited his luxury suite at FedExField, the Washington Redskins' stadium.

''The Russians, oddly, came quite a bit," Abramoff wrote. ''Weird."

One reason may be that the Russians helped pay for the suite through a now-defunct Abramoff-related nonprofit group called the US Family Network.

That group, established by an Abramoff colleague, was supposed to provide money to evangelical Christian charities.

But much of its money went to other Abramoff's friends, and some of it went to pay for Abramoff's luxury suite at FedExField, according to the group's former president, a church pastor in Frederick, Md., named Christopher Geeslin.

Geeslin said he was told by the group's founder that Russian investors gave $1 million to US Family Network, a link first reported by The Washington Post last year.

At first, Geeslin said, he could not believe the Russians would want to donate $1 million. Then, he said, he learned that Abramoff was escorting them to Capitol Hill.

''The Russians came over and Abramoff was ushering them around town," Geeslin said. ''I said: 'Man, this is true. It is just incredible.' "


'A shell operation'
Geeslin, who said Abramoff personally thanked him for paying for the FedExField suite, said he now feels ''duped" into heading the US Family Network.

''We had no idea it was just a shell operation for Abramoff," Geeslin said, referring to himself and other volunteer board members. He said he thought the money would be used for evangelical purposes.

''We were stupid enough to believe everything," he said.

The Russians, Koulakovsky and Nevskaya, did not reply to a request for comment. Ellen Levinson, who is registered to lobby for Naftasib in Washington, declined to comment.

The subpoena indicates that investigators want to establish what the Russians were trying to accomplish through Abramoff.

It asks for records relating to Naftasib's interest in legislation, tax policy, and the International Monetary Fund.

The IMF, which is financed partly by the US government, has provided billions of dollars in loans and loan guarantees to the Russian government.

Geeslin said he had been told that the money was aimed at influencing the vote of DeLay, the former House majority leader, on legislation that shored up the IMF's financing for Russia.

A DeLay spokesman, Michael Connolly, said: ''Congressman DeLay votes based on his deeply held principles and his determination about what is best for his constituents and his country."

Yevgeniy Khorishko, a spokesman for the Russian Embassy, said: ''We haven't heard about the subpoena, so we don't know anything about links between Mr. Abramoff and any Russian entity."

In addition to being a lobbyist, Abramoff registered in 1999 as a foreign agent.

This means he represents a foreign government, according to government documents. He did not specify a country.

Abramoff resigned from Greenberg Traurig in March 2004. Within days, Voor Huisen was dissolved, according to Dutch records.

A spokesman for Abramoff's attorney declined to comment.

Bryan Sierra, a Justice Department spokesman, declined to answer questions on the latest Abramoff matter.

''We can't comment on the issuance of subpoenas," Sierra said.

LINK

Ex-Malasian Leader Says He Paid Abramoff

02-20) 21:05 PST KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) --


Former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said Monday that disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff was paid $1.2 million to organize his 2002 meeting with President Bush, but denied the money came from the Malaysian government.


Mahathir told reporters he was aware a payment was made to Abramoff, but he didn't know who made it. He said he had been persuaded by the U.S. think tank Heritage Foundation to meet with Bush at the time.


"It is true that somebody paid but it was not the (Malaysian) government," Mahathir said. "I understood some people paid a sum of money to lobbyists in America but I do not know who these people were and it was not the Malaysian government."


Mahathir said the Heritage Foundation believed he could help "influence (Bush) in some way regarding U.S. policies."


Mahathir visited the White House at a time when this Southeast Asian country had emerged as a key U.S. ally in the war on terror, following Mahathir's crackdown on suspected Islamic militants although he had been consistently critical of Bush's foreign policies.


Abramoff, once among Washington's top lobbyists, pleaded guilty last month to charges that he and a former partner concocted a fake wire transfer to make it appear they were putting a sizable stake of their own money into a 2000 purchase of casinos.


Abramoff also has pleaded guilty to charges stemming from an investigation into his ties to members of Congress and to the Bush administration.

LINK

President of Abramoff linked nonprofit wrote editorial smearing rival of Abramoff client

RAW STORY
Published: February 21, 2006

Group's president attacked political rival of Prime Minister who paid $1.2m for Bush visit; Denies being paid for editorial

The President of the conservative Washington nonprofit where fallen lobbyist Jack Abramoff served as a director penned an editorial that smeared a political opponent of the Malaysian Prime Minister – an Abramoff client – helping the Prime Minister in a campaign to paint a political rival as an Islamic radical, RAW STORY has found.

Amy Ridenour, the president of the nonprofit National Center for Public Policy Research, denies taking money from Abramoff or Malaysia to write the article. But the recent admission by Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad that a $1.2m payment was made to Abramoff to arrange a meeting with President Bush may suggest that the Center has deeper ties.

Ridenour founded the National Center in 1982. The group was founded to support Reagan’s policies overseas. But what appeared an effort to engage in public policy debate devolved after revelations that Abramoff had funneled money through the group to pay for expensive jaunts taken by DeLay.

In 2001, Ridenour penned an editorial titled "The U.S. Must Tread Carefully to Avoid Creating More Fundamentalist Islamic Governments" in which she touted Malaysia as a "prosperous, stable and democratic state" and smeared Mahathir opponent Anwar Ibrahim as an Islamic radical.

Ridenour said Ibrahim was “a former government official with close links to radical Islamic fundamentalist groups has begun an international public relations effort to destablize the government in Kuala Lumpur.”

“Anwar's jailing came after he became an open political rival of Prime Minister Mahathir, leading rallies of up of up to 50,000 people calling for political change,” Ridenour wrote. “Since then, fundamentalist Islamic student groups have taken control of student unions at most public universities, and anti-government activities have resulted.”

Ridenour’s article came amidst a climate of political unrest in Malaysia. Anwar had recently been sentenced to nine years in prison on sodomy and corruption charges. Some of the charges were later questioned after witnesses recanted confessions; the allegations were seen as a political response to rallies Anwar led that called for Matathir’s resignation and for reforms. One such rally drew 100,000 people, who marched on the Prime Minister’s residence. Soon thereafter, Anwar was arrested.

Anwar was released from prison in 2004. His opposition party called the charges a “mockery of justice.”

Ridenour's editorial was reprinted in the Washington Times. While it drew scant notice in the U.S., it produced a flurry of angry responses in the Southeast Asian nation. Anwar’s wife called Ridenour’s statements "outright lies and half-truths with certain facts."

Lim Kit Siang, a member of the Malaysian parliament, all but accused Ridenour of being paid to write the article in 2001.

Malaysians, he said, were entitled to know whether Ridenour and NCPPR "have been hired in a campaign to win the hearts of Washington, whether taxpayers' monies are involved in the retention of American lobby groups to provide ‘sweeteners’ to pave the way for a meeting between the Prime Minister and President Bush, and whether the KMM and the militant Islam issues are being used to win the ear of Washington.”

"Although Amy Ridenour denies that she and her organisation had been paid by the Malaysian Government or any other entity for the outrageous report," Lim added. "She should identify who are the Malaysian officials and individuals who had fed her with the materials for her article."

Lim’s statements were precocious – just a year later, Mahathir would meet with President Bush after a payoff to Abramoff, a director on Ridenour’s board.

No evidence has emerged that Ridenour received payment for the article. But her ties to Abramoff – and the fact that her group helped channel more than $120,000 to pay for overseas trips taken by DeLay – suggest that more than her passion for policy was at play.

Ridenour did not respond to two requests for comment on this article. She has previously denied that she received any payment for its publication.

Asked Monday about payments made to Abramoff to solidify his relationship with President Bush and cement the autocratic leader’s position as a U.S. ally in the war on terror, Mahathir said money had exchanged hands but that it didn’t come from his government.

"It is true that somebody paid but it was not the (Malaysian) government," Mahathir told reporters. "I understood some people paid a sum of money to lobbyists in America but I do not know who these people were and it was not the Malaysian government."

NCPPR previously accused of improprieties

NCPPR has come under fire before for alleged quid-pro-quo. Ridenour’s group received $30,000 from Exxon Mobil in 2003 for “Envirotruth,” a website which attacks progressive and environmental groups, including Greenpeace and the Sierra Club. The payment can be seen on page 44 of Exxon's 2003 corporate giving report.

According to SourceWatch, the site concentrates on four issues - biotech food, chlorine, climate change and polyvinylchloride. Envirotruth claims to shed "light on the environmentalist movement, offering information about their tactics, terrorist acts and fundraising machines."

NCPPR also received $25,000 from Exxon Mobil for “General Operating Support.”

A previous RAW STORY investigation found that Ridenour’s group used “scare letters” to try to accrue money from senior citizens by attempting to convince them they might lose Social Security benefits.

The group’s letters – which appeared on aggressive letterhead -- targeted seniors of both parties, aiming to convince them their Social Security benefits were in jeopardy and thereby induce them to donate money. The mailings also encouraged seniors to keep the mailing secret from others, perhaps even from family members. The “scam” letters can be seen here.

Abramoff also channeled money through the center to pay for at least $120,000 in travel for DeLay. DeLay took two trips that he put down on campaign finance forms as being paid for by the center – one to London in 2000 and another to Moscow and St. Petersburg in 1997.

An article in Monday's Roll Call reveals that an investigation into Abramoff-linked nonprofits is ongoing. Given that the Senate Indian Affairs Committee collected myriad documents from Ridenour's group and had her testify, NCPPR may be among those groups under investigation.

LINK

Senate inquiry into Abramoff-linked nonprofits advances; Reed, Norquist likely eyed

RAW STORY
Published: February 21, 2006

The Senate Indian Affairs Committee has sent nearly 100 pages of documents regarding ex-lobbyist Jack Abramoff’s use of nonprofit groups to the Senate Finance Committee, opening a second avenue into Congressional probes surrounding the admitted felon, ROLL CALL's Paul Kane reports Tuesday. Excerpts:

#
Indian Affairs agreed Feb. 10 to send a limited batch of files to the Finance Committee, covering how Abramoff and his network of nonprofits helped conceal a multimillion-dollar bribery conspiracy. These documents will allow Finance to engage in the probe it announced almost a year ago into Abramoff and his nonprofits. The Finance Committee said the Abramoff documents would be part of an ongoing probe into whether some nonprofits are violating laws by taking on roles beyond what their tax-exempt status allows.

Grassley and Baucus declined to spell out what was in the Indian Affairs documents, but another source who was familiar with them said there were between 80 and 100 pages of e-mails and other files related to nonprofits.

source told ROLL CALL that roughly 75 percent of the material sent hasn't been publicly aired.

"The committee’s probe could also shine new light on the activities of two of Abramoff’s closest political allies, Grover Norquist, who runs the nonprofit Americans for Tax Reform, and Ralph Reed, the GOP activist who took more than $4 million in Abramoff cash," Kane writes. "Reed, a self-proclaimed opponent of gambling, sometimes received payments from Abramoff — money that originated from tribes who operated wealthy casinos — after it had first been routed through Norquist’s anti-tax group or other Abramoff-linked entities."

The Indian Affairs probe released many e-mail exchanges between Abramoff and his two friends regarding financing of Reed’s efforts to shut down casinos in the South that would have been rivals to Abramoff’s clients.

LINK

NSC, Cheney Aides Conspired to Out CIA Operative

By Jason Leopold
t r u t h o u t | Investigative Report

Monday 20 February 2006

The investigation into the leak of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson is heating up. Evidence is mounting that senior officials in the office of Vice President Dick Cheney and the National Security Council conspired to unmask Plame Wilson's identity to reporters in an effort to stop her husband from publicly criticizing the administration's pre-war Iraq intelligence, according to sources close to the two-year-old probe.

In recent weeks, investigators working for Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald have narrowed their focus to a specific group of officials who played a direct role in pushing the White House to cite bogus documents claiming that Iraq attempted to purchase 500 tons of uranium from Niger, which Plame Wilson's husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, had exposed as highly suspect.

One high level behind-the-scenes player who has been named by witnesses in the case as a possible source for reporters in the leak is Robert Joseph, formerly the director of nonproliferation at the National Security Council. Joseph is responsible for placing the infamous "sixteen words" about Iraq's attempt to purchase uranium from Niger in President Bush's January 2003 State of the Union address.

It's unknown when Fitzgerald will present the grand jury with additional evidence related to this aspect of the case or if he is close to securing indictments. The sources said the Special Prosecutor is very "methodical," and they expect the investigation to continue well into the spring.

The new grand jury hearing evidence in the leak case was empanelled in November. Right now, the jurors are still absorbing two years' worth of evidence Fitzgerald presented to the jurors a couple of weeks after the previous grand jury's term expired at the end of October. Sources said the jurors have raised numerous legal questions about unnamed senior Bush administration officials against whom Fitzgerald is trying to secure indictments.

Sources close to the probe said witnesses involved in the case told FBI investigators that Joseph was one of the recipients of a classified State Department memo in June 2003 that not only debunked the Niger allegations but also included a top-secret reference to Valerie Plame Wilson's work for the CIA, and that she may have been responsible for recommending that the CIA send her husband to Niger to investigate the uranium claims in February 2002.

Joseph did not return calls for comment. A spokeswoman for the vice president's office said she would not comment on "rumors" or "speculation" as long as the investigation is ongoing. Hadley's spokeswoman also did not return calls for comment, but she has said in the past that Hadley played no role in the leak.

The sources added that the witnesses testified that Joseph and then-Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley had worked directly with senior officials from vice president Cheney's office - including Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, National Security Adviser John Hannah, and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove - during the month of June to coordinate a response to reporters who had phoned the vice president's office and the NSC about the administration's use of the Niger documents.

Libby was indicted in October on five counts of lying to investigators, perjury, and obstruction of justice related to his role in the Plame Wilson leak. Legal scholars said that Fitzgerald can ask a grand jury to add conspiracy charges against Libby if he uncovers evidence that Libby and other administration officials worked together to leak Plame Wilson's identity to reporters in an effort to silence her husband. If additional charges were filed against Libby it would come in the form of a superseding indictment. Fitzgerald would have to introduce new evidence and witnesses against Libby to the grand jury, and the grand jury would decide whether there were enough evidence to support the superseding indictment.

In a court filing made public Friday in response to a defense motion in which Libby's attorneys wanted Fitzgerald to turn over highly classified documents to assist the defense's case, Fitzgerald made it clear that Libby was not charged with conspiracy.

"Libby is not charged with conspiracy or any other offense involving acting in concert with others, and the indictment lists no un-indicted co-conspirators," states Fitzgerald's motion, which asks a judge to deny the defense motion seeking evidence Fitzgerald said is unrelated to Libby's criminal indictment.

That could change, however, the sources said, if there is enough evidence to support conspiracy charges.

Although that remains to be seen, former State Department and CIA officials who have testified about their role in the leak said they believe officials at the National Security Council and in the vice president's office worked together to unmask Plame Wilson to reporters, specifically to undercut her husband's credibility. They said that Joseph was one NSC staffer who worked with Cheney officials to do so.

Joseph, who is now the Under Secretary of State for Arms Control - a position once held by John Bolton, now United States Ambassador to the United Nations - testified before the grand jury that he played no part in the leak and was not involved in attempts by the administration to discredit Wilson.

Moreover, Joseph testified that he did not recall receiving a warning in the form of a phone call from Alan Foley, director of the CIA's nonproliferation, intelligence and arms control center, saying that the "sixteen words" should not be included in Bush's speech, the sources said.

Foley had revealed this element during a closed-door hearing before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence back in July 2003 - just two weeks after Wilson wrote an op-ed in the New York Times that proved the administration cited suspect intelligence claiming Iraq attempted to purchase uranium from Niger.

The Senate committee had held hearings during this time to try to find out how the administration came to rely on the Niger intelligence at a time when numerous intelligence agencies had warned top officials in the Bush administration that it was unreliable.

Foley said he spoke to Joseph a day or two before President Bush's January 28, 2003, State of the Union address and told Joseph that detailed references to Iraq and Niger should be excluded from Bush's speech. Foley told committee members that Joseph agreed to water down the language and would instead, he told Foley, attribute the intelligence to the British, which is exactly what Bush's speech said.

However, a few weeks before Foley's meeting with the Senate committee, the Niger intelligence was beginning to unravel and threatened to expose the roles of Libby, Hadley, Joseph, Hannah, and Rove in getting the administration to rely upon it to build the case for war.

The sources said it was during this time that Libby, Hadley, Joseph, Hannah and Rove plotted to silence Wilson by leaking his wife's name to a specific group of reporters, saying that she chose him for the fact-finding mission to Niger and as a result his investigation was highly suspect. It's unclear what role, if any, Cheney played, but the sources said Fitzgerald is trying to determine if the vice president was involved.

The sources said Hannah is one of the cooperating witnesses in the probe.

The sources said this time frame was chosen because there were "rumors" that Wilson was "going to go public" and reveal that he had checked out the Niger claims on behalf of the CIA and that there was no truth to them. According to the sources close to the probe, all five of the officials have spoken with reporters about Plame Wilson.

At the same time that Plame Wilson's CIA status was leaked to reporters, Libby, Rove and Hadley had been exchanging emails that included draft statements explaining how the "sixteen words" ended up in President Bush's State of the Union address, the sources added.

"Before Mr. Wilson's article appeared in the New York Times," one source close to the case said, "the administration still insisted that Niger still had merit. It was only after the article had been published that the White House accepted responsibility."

Wilson disclosed in an op-ed he wrote in the New York Times that he had been the special envoy chosen by the CIA in February 2002 to travel to Niger to investigate allegations that Iraq tried to purchase 500 tons of yellowcake uranium from the African country.

Wilson's fact-finding mission had come as a result of additional questions Vice President Cheney raised with the CIA about the veracity of those allegations a month or so before Wilson was selected for the mission. Wilson wrote in the column that he had reported back to the CIA eight days after his trip that there was no truth to the charges. In his column, he accused the administration of ignoring his report. He said President Bush and Cheney continued to cite the Niger uranium intelligence, knowing it was false, in order to dupe the public and Congress into supporting the war.

In the four months prior to writing his column, Cheney and officials from the NSC insisted that the Niger intelligence had merit, and said as much publicly, despite the fact that the International Atomic Energy Association found that they were crude forgeries. Moreover, there is evidence that Cheney, Hadley, Libby, and numerous other officials were warned as early as March 2002 - one year before the start of the Iraq war - that claims suggesting Iraq tried to purchase uranium from Niger were baseless.

Indeed, witnesses in the case have testified that President Bush's senior aides, the vice president's office, the Pentagon, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the State Department, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Justice Department, the FBI, and the National Security Council had received and read a March 9, 2002, cable sent by the CIA that debunked the Niger claims.

The cable was prepared by a CIA analyst and was based on Wilson's oral report upon his return from Niger. It did not mention Wilson by name, but quoted a "CIA source" and Niger officials Wilson had questioned during his eight-day mission, who said there was absolutely no truth to the claims that Iraq had tried to purchase 500 tons of yellowcake uranium ore from Niger.

Cheney and other officials connected to the leak have said over the years that they never saw such a report from the CIA, and had never heard of Wilson until he became the subject of news accounts in which the former ambassador called into question the veracity of the Niger documents upon which the uranium claims were based.

The sources said it was during this month, March 2003, when Wilson arrived on the administration's radar as a result of his public comments that alleged the White House had manipulated intelligence, that Cheney, Libby, and Hadley spearheaded an effort to discredit Wilson.

It was during the course of their attempts to attack Wilson's credibility and rebut his charges that officials in the State Department, the CIA, Cheney's office, and the National Security Council - many of whom were responsible for pushing the administration to cite the Niger claims - learned that Wilson's wife was a covert CIA agent and, upon learning that she may have been responsible for sending Wilson to Niger, leaked her name to a handful of reporters.

Five days after Wilson's explosive column was published, CIA Director George Tenet accepted responsibility for allowing the infamous "sixteen words" to be included in Bush's January 28, 2003, State of the Union address. Many people interpreted this as Tenet falling on his sword to protect the president.

Two weeks later, the CIA revealed that other administration officials were culpable as well. CIA officials sent Hadley two memos in October 2002 warning him not to continue peddling the Niger claims to the White House because the intelligence was not accurate.

Hadley, who didn't heed the CIA's warnings at the time, said during a press conference on July 23, 2003, that he had forgotten about the memos.

LINK

Of Greymail, CIPA, Scooter and Fitz

Crooks and Liars has graciously offered to host the hearing transcript (PDF) from the February 3, 2006, Libby scheduling conference and hearing. (For some contemporaneous notes on the Feb. 3rd hearing, see this post and several others on this page.)

I've taken some time to comb through the transcript and thought that a little legal primer on greymail and CIPA might be useful for readers, along with a non-legalese translation for the hearing itself. So here goes.

The hearing transcript reads as a pretty standard representation of a usual scheduling conference, but deals with issues that are far above my former pay grade in terms of them dealing with serious national security and other classified matters. What both sides are trying to do, with the help of the trial judge, is to set up a framework for how classified documents and other evidentiary materials will be assessed and distributed -- and how disputes over whether discovery is proper will be resolved.

There is already a process set up for classified document review in federal courts. It is governed by CIPA (The Classified Information Procedures Act), which was promulgated in 1980 to streamline cases involving classified materials. CIPA has several steps -- including having originating agencies review materials, reporting to the Federal prosecutor, and then taking that information to the court for review as to what is safe and what is not safe for release.

Obviously, this leaves a lot of room for haggling between Fitz and Team Libby -- and is one of the main reasons we are looking at a trial date for Scooter Libby set for next January.

For more on a USAtty's perspective on CIPA, see here. For a history of CIPA and the CIA and other classified agencies, see here.

"Greymail" is a term that refers to substantial classified document requests on behalf of a defendant. It's a tactic that is in bad standing with most prosecutors who deal with national security matters, because it puts you in a difficult place at times: defend your case or defend your government's secrets.
Graymail is particularly invidious because it is likely to be most successfully employed by former officials from the heart of the government machine who subsequently face trial.
With regard to the "greymail" issue here, this is a complex subject that boils down to this for Team Libby: Scooter had a job that dealt with a lot of high level national security matters. He'd now like to use his complex job as an excuse for committing perjury, but to do that, he has to get access to a lot of the documents that crossed his desk in the service of the Veep. (Shorter Scooter: My job was hard, so you can't hold me responsible for lying.)

Fitz says those docs are irrelevent to the question of whether Libby is a perjurer/obstructor/false statement maker because, frankly, a lie is a lie.

In some cases, a "greymail" defense is a good strategy. Defense counsel are required, ethically, to defend their client with everything they can muster -- otherwise they aren't properly doing their jobs. That is absolutely true -- and if you ever face criminal charges, you'll want an advocate on your side who will do everything she or he can to help you to win your case within the bounds of the law.

In Libby's case, one of his counsels (Cline) has a history of successfully launching client defense based on "greymail" -- for Wen Ho Lee, as one high profile example. However, I would argue along with Fitz that for this case it is a transparent attempt to force a dismissal by over-requesting materials to which the Defendant ought not be entitled (including requests for 277 PDBs, which is unheard of, frankly) because they are outside the bounds of materiality.

Basically, Libby's counsel are banking on the fact that the Bush Administration will refuse to turn over classified materials they have requested. Fitz is arguing that Team Libby has no right to even ask for a lot of the material. The Judge is going to make a determination at some point as to what does or does not have to be turned over to Libby -- and, if it comes to that, whether the case can continue or not if the material is not turned over by the President.

It's a high stakes gamble on all sides, but I would argue that the case law makes it clear that if the documents and evidence requested are neither "material" nor "relevant" to the charges in the indictment, nor are exculpatory (shorthand: make Libby look not so guilty), then the defendant is not entitled to the discovery. (See Fitz' response brief that we discussed yesterday for more on this.)

The bottom line on this hearing: Libby has asked for a lot of information, most of which is highly classified. Fitz has already implemented review procedures on the documents which the judge has found acceptable. Scooter's poor handwriting is holding things up a bit, so the Judge has given everyone until early March to complete document review -- but an extension is possible, if needed.

There will be a hearing set at some point to argue whether or not Team Libby is even entitled to any of this material, and I'd guess that it will be likely that most of it is not discoverable based on the charges and the descriptions of what they are asking for at this point. Of course, nothing is certain until the Judge rules, but I think Fitz makes a persuasive argument that Libby is on a fishing expedition for information on how the ongoing investigation is going -- but he's asking for material that would only be relevent if and when he is indicted for IIPA or Espionage Act charges.

A huge thank you to Pachacutec, who braved the federal courthouse to obtain these docs for all of us.
I went in a suit and tie. DC power drag. Looked like a lawyer with a leather satchel. But no one shot me. In the face....

LINK

New Plame leak hearing transcript

Further to Redd's post on greymail this morning, I wanted to bring up another byproduct of a weakened Cheney that could affect the Libby trial.

As immanentize mentioned here in the comments not long ago, another aspect of the greymail defense is the fact that it draws attention to the activities of Libby's superiors:
What I see in this exchange is a little litigation strategy power struggle. Will it be full-bore grey mail -- which would mean that Libby would have to, in the end, be willing to implicate his "bosses" in many ways (Rove Cheney, Hadley?). What I mean by that is that grey mail forces the inspection, if not the production, of documents and leads which the prosecutor might not yet have. In the end, the prosecution might not be able to use the stuff in court, but the point of grey mail is generally to turn attention to other/bigger fish. Think the Noriega trial and the attempts to drag the CIA and former Reagan officials into the defense in Florida.
Libby's lawyers definitely have different agendas. Cline is the greymail specialist whose strategy depends on Libby's willingness to cast the spotlight on his superiors while Jeffress is the Jim Baker partner who wants to use Libby for a firewall to the higherups. I'm also hearing that Ted Wells -- who would most likely defend Libby in court -- is pushing Scooter to defend himself and not take one for the team.

Which also has extremely interesting implications for a weakened Cheney -- if Scooter does not believe that Cheney will have the influence to protect him in the end, will he start leaning toward the Cline/Wells strategy? Or are the purse strings of his defense fund -- held by the odious Barbara Comstock -- tied to the maintenance of the firewall?

Just another factor to think about as we all enjoy the specter of Cheney on the ropes. You know he's thinking about it.

LINK

Abramoff's Sentencing In Fla. Case May Wait

Defense Seeks Time For Ex-Lobbyist To Cooperate More
Associated Press
Saturday, February 18, 2006; Page A14


MIAMI, Feb. 17 -- The Justice Department and defense lawyers asked a federal judge Friday to delay the March sentencing of lobbyist Jack Abramoff in a Florida fraud case to allow him more time to cooperate in a broader government corruption investigation.

Abbe Lowell, Abramoff's lawyer in Washington, said in a telephone conference with U.S. District Judge Paul C. Huck that if sentencing went forward as scheduled on March 16, it would be "upsetting to what's happening behind the scenes."

"It's based solely on the sensitivities of cooperation," Lowell said of the request.

Abramoff pleaded guilty Jan. 4 to charges that he and a former partner, Adam Kidan, concocted a fake wire transfer to make it appear they were putting a sizable stake of their own money into the $147.5 million purchase in 2000 of the SunCruz Casinos gambling fleet. Kidan also pleaded guilty.

Abramoff also pleaded guilty last month to charges stemming from an investigation into the former lobbyists' ties to members of Congress and to the Bush administration.

Both guilty pleas require extensive cooperation from Abramoff in exchange for potential leniency at sentencing. The motion, signed by federal prosecutors and defense lawyers, seeks a maximum delay of 90 days in the March sentencing date.

"Mr. Abramoff has been working very hard in terms of his cooperation," said Neal Sonnett, Abramoff's attorney in Miami.

Huck said he would consider the request, which also includes Kidan, now scheduled to be sentenced March 1.

LINK

Prosecutor Says Libby Seeks to Thwart Criminal Case

By NEIL A. LEWIS
Published: February 18, 2006
WASHINGTON, Feb. 17 — A federal prosecutor has said I. Lewis Libby Jr., former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, is trying to sabotage the criminal case against him by insisting through his lawyers that he be given sensitive government documents for his defense.

In a court filing on Thursday night, the prosecutor said requests by Mr. Libby's lawyers for documents, including the daily intelligence briefs given to the president for nearly a year, were "a transparent effort at 'graymail.' "

The prosecutor, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, said the requests for a large amount of sensitive information beyond what they had been given was unjustified. Mr. Fitzgerald told the federal judge hearing the case that defendants like Mr. Libby had an incentive to derail their trials by asking for sensitive documents that the government might not want discussed openly.

Graymail is the practice of discouraging a prosecution from proceeding by contending that a defendant may need to disclose classified or sensitive information as part of a full defense. Such an approach can force the government to choose between dropping the prosecution or allowing the information to be disclosed at a trial.

Before 1980, some officials escaped prosecution by threatening to disclose unspecified secrets in open court. Congress enacted the Classified Information Procedures Act in 1980 to ensure that the government was not surprised by any disclosures at trial.

If the defense intends to use classified information, it has to inform the government, and then the two sides argue before a judge in secret on whether the information is needed for full defense. If a judge decides that the defendant is entitled to the information, the government has to decide whether to accept the likelihood that the information may be disclosed in a trial or drop the prosecution.

John D. Cline, a lawyer in San Francisco and an authority on the classified-procedures law who is representing Mr. Libby, challenged the accusation that the defense was engaging in graymail. Mr. Cline said the 1980 law made graymail impossible because the government knew exactly what information the defense was seeking, and a judge must rule on whether it is necessary to the defense case.

"We are working lawfully and properly through the C.I.P.A. procedures to obtain documents essential to Mr. Libby's defense," he said. "All we want is a limited number of key documents that Mr. Libby either wrote or reviewed during the most critical period in this case."

Mr. Libby is charged with five felony counts, accusing him of lying to investigators about his role in the disclosure of the identity of a Central Intelligence Agency operative, Valerie Wilson. His lawyers have said they intend to mount a defense built on the idea that he was dealing with issues far more momentous than the disclosure of Ms. Wilson's identity to reporters. To that end, they have asked Mr. Fitzgerald to turn over many documents from the vice president's office and the C.I.A.

Mr. Libby's lawyers have asked Mr. Fitzgerald to give them the President's Daily Brief for 277 days beginning in May 2003. They have said those documents "are material to establishing that any misstatements he may have made were the result of confusion, mistake and faulty memory resulting from his immersion in other, more significant matters, rather than deliberate lies."

Mr. Fitzgerald called the request "breathtaking" and noted that the daily brief was "an extraordinarily sensitive document." He said the disclosure of part of the Aug. 6, 2001, daily brief to the Sept. 11 commission was the sole instance of a daily brief's being publicly disclosed.

In addition, the lawyers have asked Mr. Fitzgerald to provide information that he obtained from reporters about other officials who might have spoken to them about Ms. Wilson.

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Lobbyist Abramoff Describes Pictures of a “Bearded, Fatter Me” With President Bush

[Editor’s note: A version of this story was posted briefly on Monday of this week. Within an hour, Jack Abramoff contacted the author, Washingtonian national editor Kim Eisler, and asked that the report be deleted from the Washingtonian.com Web site because public disclosure of his communications would damage his status as a witness and undermine his plea agreement with federal prosecutors. Abramoff has pleaded guilty to three felonies and could receive 31 years in prison for his part in the lobbying scandal. US District Court Judge Ellen Huvelle will decide the length of Abramoff’s prison term. The link was taken down while Mr. Abramoff’s concerns were investigated, but Mr. Eisler found no confirmation that publication of the item would damage any aspect of the wide-ranging probe. Thus we are posting this updated story.]

Time magazine published a photograph that showed Jack Abramoff in a scene with President Bush. This photo is not one of the five photos referred to in the February Washingtonian story that revealed the existence of pictures of the two men together. One of the photos referred to in the Washingtonian story was taken at the same event as the photo published by Time; in it the President and Abramoff are shaking hands. The Time photo showed Abramoff in the background.

In January Washingtonian national editor Kim Eisler was allowed to see the photos he reported on, but Abramoff would not release them for publication. Several of the pictures had hung prominently in Abramoff’s office and had been seen by many visitors, including Eisler, who first met Abramoff while working on a book, Revenge of the Pequots, about Native American casinos.

When newspapers reported that the White House was in a “desperate frenzy” to find photographs of Abramoff and Bush together, Eisler described in his February Washingtonian Power Players column the ones he had seen.

Before publishing the item, Eisler contacted Abramoff to get details about the circumstances in which the photos were taken. The White House has repeatedly claimed that Bush did not know Abramoff and that the pictures must have been taken at a White House holiday party, when the President shakes hands with hundreds of people he doesn’t know. None of the photographs seen by Eisler matched that description.

In various January communications with Eisler, Abramoff confirmed that he and President Bush had met in “almost a dozen settings.” Abramoff said the President had “joked with me about a bunch of things, including details of my kids. Perhaps he has forgotten everything. Who knows.”

In the photograph taken at the same event as the one published by Time, Abramoff said he and the President were discussing working out with weights.

Other photographs included a picture of Bush and Abramoff standing together with “Cheshire cat grins”; pictures of Bush and what Abramoff characterized as the “bearded fatter me”; a picture of Bush chatting with Abramoff’s twin daughters (“Oh, you are twins; I have twins,” Abramoff quoted Bush as saying); a picture of Bush, House speaker Dennis Hastert, and Abramoff’s children; and a picture of Laura Bush with Abramoff’s wife, Pam, and the twin girls, who had led the Pledge of Allegiance at the event (said Abramoff: “Laura went ga-ga over their being twins”).

A frustrated Abramoff, who feels he has been abandoned by many of his conservative friends, added, “They will come up with excuse after excuse as to how and why he did not know me. I could have spent four months alone with him in Bolivia and he would not know me.”

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Delay sought for Abramoff sentencing in Florida fraud case

Article published Feb 17, 2006
Delay sought for Abramoff sentencing in Florida fraud case

MIAMI The U.S. Justice Department and defense lawyers asked a federal judge Friday to delay the scheduled March sentencing of lobbyist Jack Abramoff in a Florida fraud case to allow him more time to cooperate in a broader government corruption investigation.

Abbe Lowell, Abramoff's lawyer in Washington, D.C., said in a telephone conference with U.S. District Judge Paul C. Huck that if sentencing went forward as scheduled on March 16 it would be "upsetting to what's happening behind the scenes."

"It's based solely on the sensitivities of cooperation," Lowell said of the request.

Abramoff pleaded guilty Jan. 4 to charges that he and a former partner, Adam Kidan, concocted a fake wire transfer to make it appear they were putting a sizable stake of their own money into the $147.5 million purchase in 2000 of the SunCruz Casinos gambling fleet. Kidan also pleaded guilty.

Abramoff also pleaded guilty last month to charges stemming from an investigation into the former lobbyists' ties to members of Congress and to the Bush administration.

Both guilty pleas require extensive cooperation from Abramoff in exchange for potential leniency at sentencing. The motion, signed by federal prosecutors and defense lawyers, seeks a delay of up to 90 days in the March sentencing date.

"Mr. Abramoff has been working very hard in terms of his cooperation," said Neal Sonnett, Abramoff's attorney in Miami.

Huck, however, did not immediately agree to any delay, mainly because he had not seen a copy of the joint motion requesting it. He said he would consider it but served notice on the lawyers not to expect him to automatically agree to such requests.

"You're not going to get any special consideration," Huck said. "My inclination is to go forward."

"I'm just asking the court to be open-minded," Lowell said. "It's not a normal case in many ways."

Kidan, scheduled to be sentenced March 1, is also included in the motion for a delay.

The Senate ethics committee will defer any investigation into influence peddling by Abramoff because of Justice Department concerns, according to a committee letter released Friday.

The deferral follows normal practice when there is a criminal investigation that overlaps the conduct to be investigated by the Senate.

Democracy 21, a group that tracks campaign finance issues and congressional ethics, had asked the ethics committee last November to investigate lawmakers' ties to Abramoff.

The organization cited an Associated Press story that reported nearly three dozen members of Congress pressed the government to block a Louisiana Indian tribe from opening a casino. The lawmakers collected large donations from rival tribes and their lobbyist, Abramoff.

Many intervened with letters to Interior Secretary Gale Norton within days of receiving money from tribes represented by Abramoff or using the lobbyist's restaurant for fundraising, the AP reported.

In the letter released Friday by Democracy 21, Committee Chairman George Voinovich, R-Ohio and ranking Democrat Tim Johnson of South Dakota wrote, "The Department of Justice has made the committee aware that it has concerns about the impact an Ethics Committee investigation may have on the department's ongoing criminal investigation into Abramoff-related matters."

"The committee also fully appreciates the significant level of public concern that exists regarding 'Abramoff-related' allegations," the letter said. "The committee believes strongly, however, that the interest of the American public in this matter will be best served at this time by allowing the criminal investigation to proceed without the risk of being impeded ... ."

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Judge Weighs Libby's Request for Documents

By TONI LOCY, Associated Press Writer
Fri Feb 17, 11:20 AM ET

A former White House aide's wide-ranging demand for classified intelligence documents to aid his defense in the CIA leak case would sabotage the case if granted, the prosecutor is charging.

Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald suggested that lawyers for I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby were trying to torpedo the government's case by pressing for the documents, including nearly a year's worth of the Presidential Daily Brief, a summary of threats to the U.S. that the Bush administration has fiercely guarded in the past.

In court papers filed late Thursday, Fitzgerald also asserted that granting such a request would damage national security and presidential executive privilege. He called it "nothing short of breathtaking."

"The defendant's effort to make history ... is a transparent effort at 'greymail,'" he said, referring to past attempts by government officials charged with wrongdoing to derail their prosecutions by trying to expose national security secrets.

Libby, 55, was indicted last year on charges that he lied about how he learned CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity and when he subsequently told reporters. Libby's trial is set for January 2007.

Libby's lawyers have that they need the secret briefings prepared for President Bush to show that Libby had more pressing matters of national security on his mind than the disclosure of Plame's identity. The documents will show Libby "was immersed throughout the relevant period in urgent and sensitive matters," the defense said in court papers.

In a 32-page response to Libby's requests, Fitzgerald said he already has turned over more than 11,000 pages of classified and unclassified evidence to the defense — more than required under law.

But the defense also is seeking access to every Presidential Daily Brief from May 2003 to March 2004, amounting to 277 intelligence reports.

The prosecutor quoted Vice President Dick Cheney, Libby's former boss, as describing the PDBs as the "family jewels" of government, and warned U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton that turning over such highly classified documents would provoke a lengthy legal battle with the president.

At the beginning of the Bush administration access to the PDBs was reduced within the government to reduce the risk of leaks. The White House publicly released selected briefings only under great pressure and careful negotiation with the commission investigating the government's performance surrounding the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The administration has argued that releasing daily intelligence memos could hamper future presidents' ability to get candid advice.

Libby also is seeking access to more information about news reporters connected to the case and records about Plame kept by the CIA, including any assessments of damage to national security by the public disclosure of the operative's identity.

Fitzgerald said he does not have to prove that the disclosure damaged national security to secure a conviction of Libby for perjury, false statements and obstruction of justice.

He also said he is not required to search every government agency's files for evidence that might help Libby's defense.

Fitzgerald said he has given defense attorneys everything he has gathered on Libby's conversations with reporters. But the prosecutor said he is not required to give the defense the statements and testimony of reporters who will be called as government witnesses at trial.

The prosecutor also said he gave the defense documents about reporters who obtained information about Plame from sources other than Libby. But Fitzgerald said he has withheld the specifics about the reporters' sources to protect grand jury secrecy in his ongoing investigation.

Plame's identity was published in July 2003 by columnist Robert Novak after her husband, former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson, accused the administration of twisting intelligence about Iraq's efforts to buy uranium "yellowcake" in Niger. The year before, the CIA had sent Wilson to Niger to determine the accuracy of the uranium reports.

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