Anatomy of a White House Smear, 3.7

This post comes from emptywheel that has been doing a great job explaining Plamegate. Please go to the link and read his "Anatomy of a White House Smear for a complete understanding of what is going on.

Anatomy of a White House Smear, 3.7
by emptywheel

(Previous parts 3.1 | 3.2 | 3.3 | 3.4 | 3.5 | 3.6)

This is the last of my Anatomy of a White House Smear series. We've seen some of the post-indictment events already, in reviewing the ways that Rove capitalized on the behavior of Woodward and Viveca Novak to evade charges. In this post, I examine the indictment and what we've learned since the indictment, with an eye toward speculating where this might go.


The Indictment

IANAL, so my thoughts on Scooter Libby's indictment come from an awareness of the case rather than lawyerly analysis. That said, there are several aspects of the indictment that stick out:

Fitzgerald lays the ground work for charging IIPA, by establishing Libby's security clearance and responsibility to comply with the IIPA law, but he doesn't attempt to make the case that Libby knew Plame's status was covert, even though several details (of Cheney's description of Plame as CPD, or the conversation with Ari) suggest Libby did know it.
Fitzgerald names a lot of witnesses, almost of all whom (save probably Cheney, Addington, Edelman, and Judy) have either obtained a cooperation agreement or will be friendly witnesses to Fitzgerald. We don't see the names of other people (like most WHIG members of Hadley or John Hannah) who have an awareness of these events, but who might present problems on the witness stand--or might be under investigation. The big exception, of course, is Karl Rove, named as Official A.

Fitzgerald reveals he knows of Dick Cheney's involvement (in telling Libby of Plame's identity, in consulting with Libby on July 12, and possibly in annotating the CIA files on Wilson's trip).
On or about June 12, 2003, LIBBY was advised by the Vice President of the United States that Wilson’s wife worked at the Central Intelligence Agency in the Counterproliferation Division. LIBBY understood that the Vice President had learned this information from the CIA.

But at times, he downplays Dick's centrality to the action, as when he describes a conversation between Libby, Cathie Martin, and Dick Cheney on Air Force 2 this way:

On his return trip, LIBBY discussed with other officials aboard the plane what LIBBY should say in response to certain pending media inquiries, including questions from Time reporter Matthew Cooper.


Further, Fitzgerald leaves other key details (such as Cheney's involvement in the NIE leak) out of the indictment.

In other words, Fitzgerald doesn't hint at what he knows about a larger conspiracy, if there is one. But he does include clear threats to three people--Rove (in the form of designation as Official A), Libby (in the form of a potential IIPA violation), and Cheney (in the form of hints that Fitzgerald knows of his deep involvement in the leak)--without revealing all the details he knows. I believe the subsequent events, whatever they might be, were overshadowed by those three threats.

Libby's Legal and Fundraising Team

Even before the indictment was announced, Libby's allies began to set up his defense team. Note this VandeHei description: "intermediaries" for Libby make this effort.

But intermediaries for Libby have in recent days contacted several law firms with extensive white-collar criminal defense experience about possibly representing Libby in the near future, according to legal sources.

That is, I think, consistent with the nature of Libby's defense effort. His defense team and his defense fund--sponsored by all the leading lights of the Neocon project--serve not just to defend Libby, but to defend the larger project from exposure through this case. And so, at times, Libby's lawyers go to great length to reassure the public that they intend a full and antagonistic defense of Libby, and that they take misrepresentations about Dick's involvement seriously.

That shows in the team's choice of lawyers. While Ted Wells has successfully defended a number of indicted politicians, he has worked for more Democrats than Republicans.

Not so the other two lawyers added to the team (Joseph Tate, with whom Libby used to work, also remains on the team). The team's retention of John Cline, one of Ollie North's lawyers in Iran-Contra, reveals that it hoped to use a graymail strategy, to muck up the case by requesting highly classified documents which the White House might refuse to turn over, thereby forcing the government to dismiss the charges. (It appears that this strategy has largely failed, partly because the indictment's limitation to perjury and obstruction charges makes the most expansive requests irrelevant. At the most recent trial hearing, apparently, it also was announced that the White House had not objected to turning over the requested documents).

The inclusion of William Jeffress on the team serves two purposes. First, Jeffress manages the strategy for using journalists as witnesses. In particular, Jeffress' victory before SCOTUS in Nixon v. Warner Communications (in which the release of the Nixon tapes was postponed until after appeal), served to limit the press' right in trials. From the decision:

Nor is release of the tapes required by the Sixth Amendment guarantee of a public trial. While public understanding of the highly publicized trial may remain incomplete in the absence of the ability to listen to the tapes and form judgments as to their meaning, the same could be said of a live witness' testimony, yet there is no constitutional right to have such testimony recorded and broadcast. The guarantee of a public trial confers no special benefit on the press... [my emphasis]

Already, Jeffress has argued for expansive discovery of journalists' notes. But the Nixon decision may become pertinent as the defense introduces Judy's notes, which may implicate other members of the cabal. But that's not all. Jeffress also happens to be a partner in the TX law firm Baker Botts, which means he can somewhat legally share information with his law partner and Bush family fixer James A. Baker III. How about that! He can seek to prevent sharing of information with the press, but facilitate sharing information back to the cabal!

So two of Libby's three big name lawyers were instrumental at limiting one individual trial from bringing down entire Republican conspiracies in the past. That, in and of itself, indicates the understanding Libby's team brings to his trial: as the burglars tried to on Watergate and North tried to with Iran-Contra, Libby's trial must limit the damage to the larger conspiracy.

What better person to manage the PR and fund raising side of this, then, than Barbara Comstock, who (with Mark Corallo) seems to be the RNC's designated gal in charge of limiting the damage one obscenely corrupt Republican's trial can have on the rest of the obscenely corrupt Republican project.

More hereand there are links to go back to the start of his Anatomy.