Sponsored Content




Intermarkets' Privacy Policy
Support


Donate to Ace of Spades HQ!



Recent Entries
Absent Friends
Bandersnatch 2024
GnuBreed 2024
Captain Hate 2023
moon_over_vermont 2023
westminsterdogshow 2023
Ann Wilson(Empire1) 2022
Dave In Texas 2022
Jesse in D.C. 2022
OregonMuse 2022
redc1c4 2021
Tami 2021
Chavez the Hugo 2020
Ibguy 2020
Rickl 2019
Joffen 2014
AoSHQ Writers Group
A site for members of the Horde to post their stories seeking beta readers, editing help, brainstorming, and story ideas. Also to share links to potential publishing outlets, writing help sites, and videos posting tips to get published. Contact OrangeEnt for info:
maildrop62 at proton dot me
Cutting The Cord And Email Security
Moron Meet-Ups

NoVaMoMe 2024: 06/08/2024
Arlington, VA
Details to follow


Texas MoMe 2024: 10/18/2024-10/19/2024 Corsicana,TX
Contact Ben Had for info





















« With Surge Working, Media Frets That There Is No "Backup Plan" That Can Guarantee Failure Should The Current Plan Threaten Success | Main | Missing Iranian General, Found In the USA? »
March 06, 2007

LIBBY VERDICT IN; TO BE ANNOUNCED WITHIN MINUTES
GUILTY ON OBSTRUCTION, PERJURY, LYING TO INVESTIGATORS

Those sound a bit repetitive, but it's what the article says.

...

Guilty on at least one count is my guess.

Although much of this can be chalked up to misremembering, the one thing that's hard to buy as a the product of a poor memory is his insistence that he thought he heard this first from Russert, because the Russert conversation occurred two weeks after he heard it from Dick Cheney.

He squares this circle by saying he first heard it from Cheney, but forgot it, so when he heard it two weeks later from Russert (supposedly), he honestly believed he was hearing it for the first time.

He may have claimed that because he realized he'd made a mistake as to the timing, and didn't want to change his story, because he knew he was dealing with a prosecutor looking to convict him. But whatever his reasons -- I'm sorry, that's just not plausible.

And yes, I still think there was no pretext for Fitzgerald's investigation, that he knew there was no possible crime to be investigated here from day one (forcing him to invent the crime of "conspiracy to violate the Wilsons' civil rights," though he couldn't quite say which rights had been violated), which makes this all a travesty and Libby's lies immaterial as a matter of law.

But the jury will almost certainly hang him on that one implausible statement. They're inclined to convict him, being liberal DC Democrats and all, and I don't see why they'd avoid doing so when even *I* can't explain that one away.

Actually... I guess it is easily explained -- when trying to remember what people told you a year or two ago, it's hard to pin the order down when they're separated by a couple of weeks.

I keep having people mention posts I've written that I have no recollection of, for example. Archaelogist/slut? I had no idea I'd ever written anything like that. Joy McCann of Little Miss Atilla mentioned the photo of "me" naked with a cat that I posted last time I begged people for money; I kept thinking she must be thinking of someone else, as I had never, ever posted such a picture.

But I had.

So: first the appeal, I guess, fighting over whether or not Fitzgerald had the right to impanel a grand jury to investigate a non-crime in the first place; and when that fails (which it will), the sentencing.

As others have suggested; Sandy Berger lied to investigators and destroyed national security documents to prevent them from being seen by the 9/11 Commission. He paid a $50,000 fine, had to do 100 hours of community service or thereabouts, and lost his security clearance for two years or so.

I'd say that should be the maximum sentence for Libby. Maybe about half that.


From The Comments: Figured I'd just paste this into the post.

>>>Libby's crime wasn't in outing Plame, it was in lying to the grand jury.

True. But here Libby was put under oath and forced to testify when NO CRIME HAD CONCEIVABLY BEEN COMMITTED.

Look at it this way: It sure would be nice to put Hillary Clinton under oath, or Dan Rather, or any other figure on the left, and compel them to answer politically embarrassing questions honestly or else face jail time, but prosecutors aren't allowed to just put someone under oath and question them for shits and grins. there has to be an actual crime being investigated. There was none here, and Fitzgerald knew that from the start.

Hence, his claim that he was investigating "a possible conspiracy to violate civil rights," which rights, again, he could not name specifically, because all of the specific laws that could possibly imply a violated civil right were inapplicable.

Whistlelblower law? Doesn't apply. Espionage Act? Doesn't apply. Covert agent protection act? Doesn't apply.

So WHICH civil rights? Apparently none named in the constitution or any statute.

There's no such thing as a general, nonspecific catch-all "civil right." You either have the right from the constittuion, from previous court opinions, or from statutes (either explicitly giving you a civil rights cause of action or, more frequently, "implied" by such a law).

Fitzie couldn't name what law gave Wilson and Plame created this "civil right" to be named later whose violation he was supposedly investigating -- because no such law existed.

Not that this reasoning will persuade an appeals court. But I think it's accurate.


digg this
posted by Ace at 01:05 PM

| Access Comments




Recent Comments
weft cut-loop[/i][/b] [/s]: "[]i[Some statins cause both short term and long te ..."

torabora : "Pro-choice Democrat marylin lands gives anti-abort ..."

Ciampino - Was I going upstair when called?s or downstairs: "426 Posted by: Braenyard at March 28, 2024 01:09 ..."

Braenyard: "I'm overtime, y'all have a good evening. ..."

RickZ: "[i]Didn't think Kennedy would pick someone that nu ..."

mikeski: "[i]Pete Buttgiggity to sport a smug look on his fa ..."

mikeski: "[i]The original Siamese Twins, the Bunker twins, w ..."

Ciampino - Tabasco to the fartclam: "515 And some national fake day, a Tranny Day of W ..."

Puddleglum, cheer up for the worst is yet to come: "[i]509 Ramadan lights will be on display in centra ..."

raimondo: " Pro-choice Democrat marylin lands gives anti-abor ..."

Braenyard: "Didn't think Kennedy would pick someone that nuts. ..."

Ciampino - Another communist?: "Robert F. Kennedy Jr. VP pick Nicole Shanahan help ..."

Recent Entries
Search


Polls! Polls! Polls!
Frequently Asked Questions
The (Almost) Complete Paul Anka Integrity Kick
Top Top Tens
Greatest Hitjobs

The Ace of Spades HQ Sex-for-Money Skankathon
A D&D Guide to the Democratic Candidates
Margaret Cho: Just Not Funny
More Margaret Cho Abuse
Margaret Cho: Still Not Funny
Iraqi Prisoner Claims He Was Raped... By Woman
Wonkette Announces "Morning Zoo" Format
John Kerry's "Plan" Causes Surrender of Moqtada al-Sadr's Militia
World Muslim Leaders Apologize for Nick Berg's Beheading
Michael Moore Goes on Lunchtime Manhattan Death-Spree
Milestone: Oliver Willis Posts 400th "Fake News Article" Referencing Britney Spears
Liberal Economists Rue a "New Decade of Greed"
Artificial Insouciance: Maureen Dowd's Word Processor Revolts Against Her Numbing Imbecility
Intelligence Officials Eye Blogs for Tips
They Done Found Us Out, Cletus: Intrepid Internet Detective Figures Out Our Master Plan
Shock: Josh Marshall Almost Mentions Sarin Discovery in Iraq
Leather-Clad Biker Freaks Terrorize Australian Town
When Clinton Was President, Torture Was Cool
What Wonkette Means When She Explains What Tina Brown Means
Wonkette's Stand-Up Act
Wankette HQ Gay-Rumors Du Jour
Here's What's Bugging Me: Goose and Slider
My Own Micah Wright Style Confession of Dishonesty
Outraged "Conservatives" React to the FMA
An On-Line Impression of Dennis Miller Having Sex with a Kodiak Bear
The Story the Rightwing Media Refuses to Report!
Our Lunch with David "Glengarry Glen Ross" Mamet
The House of Love: Paul Krugman
A Michael Moore Mystery (TM)
The Dowd-O-Matic!
Liberal Consistency and Other Myths
Kepler's Laws of Liberal Media Bias
John Kerry-- The Splunge! Candidate
"Divisive" Politics & "Attacks on Patriotism" (very long)
The Donkey ("The Raven" parody)
Powered by
Movable Type 2.64