Those Eight Pages

February 03, 2006
Those Eight Pages
by emptywheel

Geez, here I was, getting ready for the Super Bowl, having a great conversation about football, scratching my crotch, and drinking a beer. But obsessed and Sebastian Dangerfield say I've got to get back on the Plame beat and talk about the 8 pages of Judge Tatel's opinion that the court has unredacted (go to pages 31 through 39.

Ah well. Can't wait for Sunday. Go Steelers!

The Eight Pages include a lot of things we already know from Libby's indictment. They lay out the case for perjury, including details of Cheney telling Libby of Plame's employ, Libby mentioning Valerie Wilson to his CIA briefer, the conversation with Russert, and the conversation with Ari.

Conversation with Ari

I gotta say, far and away the most interesting part of this newly unredacted information is the passage on Ari's conversation with Libby:

For example, then-White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer recalls that over lunch on July 7, the day before Libby’s meeting with Miller, Libby told him, “[T]he Vice-President did not send Ambassador Wilson to Niger . . . the CIA sent Ambassador Wilson to Niger. . . . [H]e was sent by his wife. . . . [S]he works in . . . the Counterproliferation area of the CIA.” (II-545-47.) Describing the lunch as “kind of weird” (II-590-91), and noting that Libby typically “operated in a very closed-lip fashion” (II-592), Fleischer recalled that Libby “added something along the lines of, you know, this is hush-hush, nobody knows about this. This is on the q.t.” (II-546-47.) Though Libby remembers the lunch meeting, and even says he thanked Fleischer for making a statement about the Niger issue, he denies discussing Wilson’s wife. (I-108-09, 156, 226-27.)

The passage resolves any notion that Libby explicitly told Ari to leak this information (Swopa, I hope you're reading this too). But the "weirdness" about it suggests that Libby may have hoped that Ari would leak it, or at least given some hints, which may be all that John Dickerson got. Note, too, that Libby didn't just tell Ari that Plame was CIA (as the indictment states), but that she was in Counterproliferation, which would have made it clear that Plame was covert. And the whole conversation attests to the fact that Libby was blabbing about classified information, something he didn't usually do. Ari will say, that is, that Libby's sharing of this information was not typical behavior.

Libby, of course, denies he ever mentioned Plame. Guess that explains why he spent last summer trying to impugn Ari as a witness.

Conversation with Russert

WRT the Russert information, we learn something the blogosphere had already figured out: Libby called Russert to complain about Tweety's coverage (recall that Tweety had said Libby was responsible for the uranium claims).

Nevertheless, Libby maintains that he believed he was learning about Wilson’s wife’s identity for the first time when he spoke with NBC Washington Bureau Chief Tim Russert on July 10 or 11 regarding coverage of the Niger issue by MSNBC correspondent Chris Matthews. (I-162-69; 8/27/04 Aff. at 9-10.)

And, finally, we get an account of Russert's side of the conversation. Reading through the Russert, we might get a sense of why he hasn't been more forthcoming himself.

Russert recalls this conversation very differently. In his deposition, describing Plame’s employment as a fact that would have been “[v]ery” significant to him—one he would have discussed with NBC management and potentially sought to broadcast—Russert stated, “I have no recollection of knowing that [Wilson’s wife worked at the CIA], so it was impossible for me to have [told Libby] that.” (I-43, 32.) Asked to describe his
“reaction” to Novak’s July 14 column, Russert said, “Wow. When I read that—it was the first time I knew who Joe Wilson’s wife was and that she was a CIA operative. . . . [I]t was news to me.” (I-433.) [my emphasis]

First, look at those two brackets. They may very well be innocuous. The first bracket may just be an explanation. and the second may have just explained the reference behind an unclear word. So it may have read like this in Russert's statement:

“I have no recollection of knowing that, so it was impossible for me to have said that.”

This is probably the most likely. But look at the next passage I've bolded:

Wow. When I read that—it was the first time I knew who Joe Wilson’s wife was and that she was a CIA operative.

Again, this could be innocuous, something along the lines of "I knew who Joe Wilson was, but never knew he had a wife." But it could also mean, "I knew Joe Wilson and but I never knew Valerie Plame, noted energy analyst, was Wilson's wife." No way of telling, but if the second is true, it might explain what Andrea Mitchell has been babbling about all these months. It also might explain why Russert would have responded with the lame, "wow." Is it possible that the security reporters all knew Valerie Plame? In any case, if this second possibility is true, it also suggests the brackets may obscure information, such as:

“I have no recollection of knowing Plame was married to Wilson, so it was impossible for me to have said that.”

Like I said, we have no way of knowing one way or another. Let's hope someone thinks of asking Russert some questions for a change. I nominate Barack Obama.

Judy's Version

******There is much more...read it here:

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