Thread: LIBBY GUILTY OF LYING IN CIA LEAK CASE

Libby Guilty of Lying in C.I.A. Leak Case
By DAVID STOUT and NEIL A. LEWIS
Published: March 6, 2007
WASHINGTON, March 6 — I. Lewis Libby Jr., the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, was convicted today of lying to F.B.I. agents and grand jurors investigating the unmasking of a C.I.A. operative amid a burning dispute over the war in Iraq.

Jamie Rose for The New York Times
Patrick Fitzgerald, the lead prosecutor, after the verdict today.


Doug Mills/The New York Times
I. Lewis Libby with his chief lawyer, Theodore V. Wells Jr., outside Federal Court House in Washington today.
The jury rejected Mr. Libby’s claims of memory lapses as it convicted him of obstruction of justice, giving false statements to the F.B.I. and perjuring himself, charges embodied in four of the five counts of the indictment.

The panel acquitted him on an additional count of making false statements to the F.B.I.

The jury deliberated for 10 days before handing up their verdict to Federal Judge Reggie B. Walton this morning, ending one of Washington’s most closely watched trials of recent years. Mr. Libby, 56, could theoretically face more than two decades in prison, but as a first offender he will almost surely get a much lighter penalty.

Mr. Libby appeared composed as the verdict was read. He was then taken to be photographed and fingerprinted as a convicted felon. He will remain free on his own recognizance until sentencing, scheduled by Judge Walton for June 5.

“We are very disappointed,” Mr. Libby’s chief lawyer, Theodore V. Wells Jr., said outside the courthouse soon after the verdict. “Despite our disappointment in the jury verdict, we believe in the American criminal justice system. We believe in the jury system.”

Mr. Wells said he would submit a motion for a new trial, and that if that motion is denied, he would appeal. “We have every confidence that ultimately, Mr. Libby will be vindicated,” the lawyer said. He insisted that his client was “totally innocent.”

But the prosecutor, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, said he had done what “any responsible prosecutor” would have done. “It’s not the verdict that justifies the investigation,” he said. “It’s the facts.”

“Any lie under oath is serious,” Mr. Fitzgerald said. “The truth is what drives the justice system.”

One of the jurors said afterward that there had been “a tremendous amount of sympathy” during deliberations, as jurors sometimes wondered aloud, “What are we doing with this guy here?” But the juror, Denis Collins, said the panel had been guided by the facts, which in the end were damning to Mr. Libby.

Even if the conviction is overturned on appeal, or voided by a presidential pardon, the conviction is, for the moment, a personal tragedy for “Scooter” Libby, as he has been known since childhood. It is also a major embarrassment for the Bush administration, whose Iraq policy is increasingly unpopular with the public and is under increasing attack on Capitol Hill.

The jury of seven women and four men reached their decision after a 12th member of the panel was dismissed. Judge Walton found that the 12th juror had disqualified herself by inadvertently listening to information about the case outside the courtroom.

Right up to the final stages of the deliberations, there were hints of some confusion on the jury as to just what Mr. Libby was accused of doing. This morning, for instance, Judge Walton was asked if Mr. Libby was accused of making a false statement to a reporter from Time magazine. No, the judge said; he was not.

Mr. Fitzgerald contended that Mr. Libby lied repeatedly in an attempt to hamper an investigation into who disclosed the name of the operative. Mr. Wells insisted that any inconsistencies or inaccuracies in Mr. Libby’s accounts came from the innocent memory lapses of a very busy man.

Mr. Fitzgerald told jurors near the trial’s conclusion that Mr. Libby “made a gamble — he threw sand in the eyes of the grand jury” rather than tell the truth and risk being prosecuted for leaking the name of the operative, Valerie Plame Wilson.

Nonsense, Mr. Wells countered: “Scooter Libby is innocent. He didn’t do anything. He didn’t leak to anybody. Think about the madness of this prosecution. He’s been indicted for perjury, false statements — it’s craziness.”

Ms. Wilson’s husband, the former diplomat Joseph C. Wilson IV, was a harsh critic of President Bush’s Iraq policy. He traveled to Africa in 2002 to investigate rumors that Saddam Hussein had tried to acquire uranium there. In an Op-Ed article in The New York Times on July 6, 2003, he wrote that those reports were “highly doubtful.”

Eight days later, the columnist Robert D. Novak wrote that the Central Intelligence Agency chose Mr. Wilson for the Africa trip at the suggestion of his wife, who worked for the C.I.A. and specialized in intelligence about weapons of mass destruction.

The hint of nepotism was seized upon by White House allies and critics of Mr. Wilson, who said it undermined the credibility of his account. But Mr. Wilson and critics of the White House contended that Ms. Wilson was unmasked in order to intimidate foes of the administration.

A paradox in the Libby case is that no one was ever charged criminally with the leak itself. In fact, Mr. Fitzgerald knew early on that Richard L. Armitage, the former deputy Secretary of State, was the primary source.

Mr. Armitage first told the authorities in October 2003 that he was the source for the Novak column that set off the investigation. And Karl Rove, the president’s top political adviser, is known to have provided extra confirmation of her identity for Mr. Novak.


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http://link.toolbot.com/nytimes.com/67952



I am so happy that at least one head of corruption is rolling. I am hoping that Libby will rollover on Dr. Evil aka Cheney and a few more of the sorry morons of this fraudulent administration.

Too bad Rove didn't go down with him. Libby feel like a patsy or a scapegoat?

Dixie

I think Cheney is the one that Libby is protecting.

Originally Posted by Cindy

I think Cheney is the one that Libby is protecting.

Clearly he is protecting the Wizard of Oz, (Cheney) the scarecrow(Rove) and cowardly lion (Bush). I would give my left arm and a lung to see them all go down in flames.

I sure hope that everyone takes a step back and realizes that, whether Libby is an SOB or not, this case was BOGUS!

And, if they can do this to him, they can do it to us!!

With alll the crap that they could have brought a case forward with, they do this.

Careful what we wish for. This is exactly whats happening with the court cases concerning the ILLEGALS and the ACLU.
BOGUS

Not a good sign, folks.........the courts are now stacked and prosecutors are getting away with taking lives away from Americans.
The BP AGENTS are another good example.

my 2 cents

Originally Posted by 2ndamendsis

I sure hope that everyone takes a step back and realizes that, whether Libby is an SOB or not, this case was BOGUS!

And, if they can do this to him, they can do it to us!!

With alll the crap that they could have brought a case forward with, they do this.

Careful what we wish for. This is exactly whats happening with the court cases concerning the ILLEGALS and the ACLU.
BOGUS

Not a good sign, folks.........the courts are now stacked and prosecutors are getting away with taking lives away from Americans.
The BP AGENTS are another good example.

my 2 cents

Scary, very scary!

YUP!

we can't have it both ways so we surely don't want to applaud a scam no matter who it's being perpetrated upon.

That finger turns right around and points back to the American citizen.

“Any lie under oath is serious,” Mr. Fitzgerald said. “The truth is what drives the justice system.”

Clinton was found quilt of lying under oath, correct? And his sentence?

He could face up to 25 years because he lied to a grand jury but from all that I have heard/read her (Plame) status has still not been confirmed as "secret". So the crime is not that he "gave away" the identity of a "secret agent", I've heard her position was "managerial", but that he lied under oath about a crime that maybe wasn't a crime if her identity was not so secretive. What??? If she does hold a managerial position then there would not have been a grand jury. First things first. So there was a grand jury without a crime being committed? This is so beyond me. I can't explain how my poor little brain gets from there to illegal aliens but...they have committed a crime by coming here ILLEGALLY...where's the grand jury? Are they facing 25 years imprisonment? No, now our government wants to discuss comprehensive ways to make the illegal legal. I'm really concerned about the JUSTICE in this system.

Maybe Bush will get something right and pardon this man along with Ramos and Compean and many others that justice has, in my opinion, been anything but just.

Now, they need to go after Sandy Berger with both barrels.

Plame was NOT an undercover/covert agent.

SANDY BERGER is a LEGITIMATE case.

Libby got convicted of NOTHING as there was NO case ever FILED pertaining to his communications with the FBI.
BOGUS.

Especially since Klinton was 'convicted' of more serious charges concerning a particular filed case and received a slap on the hand.
Klinton should then be serving 25 years!

** Therefore, without ANY CASE filed, if the FBI should feel like questioning YOU on a whim and you tell them something not verified, not true, questionable, YOU can be brought to trial.
This is like lying to a cop during a traffic stop! Were you speeding? Not me officer.