Prosecutor resists Libby's request (Fitzgerald says effort at 'greymail')

[sabra]

http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/news/politics/13897059.htm

Prosecutor resists Libby's request


<snip>

Lawyers for I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff, are asking a federal judge to force Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald to turn over evidence ranging from communications between reporters and their sources to highly sensitive intelligence briefings provided to President Bush.

...

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


...

A key request by the defense is for access to every Presidential Daily Brief - a summary of the threats against the United States and its interests worldwide - from May 2003 to March 2004.
Fitzgerald said the request amounts to 277 intelligence reports and called it "nothing short of breathtaking."

...

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

[stop the bleeding]

1. reading article now will comment in a second

[babylonsister]

2. Sounds like Libby has some lazy lawyers; why should Fitz

do their legwork for them?

[sabra]

3. last paragraph says it all, trying to expose national secrets

in order to derail the prosecution

[stop the bleeding]

4. I love Fitzgerald is one heck of a chess player

Fitzgerald said the request amounts to 277 intelligence reports and called it "nothing short of breathtaking."

The prosecutor quoted Cheney 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.

~snip~

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.:rofl:


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

[Skink]

7. Breath taking really...

[Punkingal]

13. I loved that last line, too....

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

I love Fitzgerald! He is sarcastic in a legal brief!:bounce:

[KoKo]

5. The lawyer at FiredogLake said that was what was going on.

She said that Fitz would be savvy enough to figure it out and would probably deal with it appropriately.

[BR_Parkway]

22. Fitz pretty well points out that he was anticiapating the greymail

defense - which is why he only charged him with perjury/obstruction. None of that comes into play in Libby's defense of if he lied under oath or not. Looks like Fitz decided that Libby was the weak link - he could hit him with charges that would stick and not gum up the works with executive priviledge and classified info.

Once Libby realizes that he's not getting off (and Fitz has pointed out enough other info at the White House for Libby to realize that there's no guarantee of a Presidential pardon) then Libby cuts the deal = Fitz takes that and goes after the Big Fish. Not sure why he's holding off on KKKarl, but I think it has something to do with the missing emails

[Fridays Child]

6. In this case, greymail is the last refuge of a scoundrel.

(apologies to Samuel Johnson)

[Rose Siding]

8. Cline, one of the attys is a "greymail" specialist. Waas explained-

snip>
Among his detractors, Cline is what is known as a "graymail" specialist-an attorney who, critics say, purposely makes onerous demands on the federal government to disclose classified information in the course of defending his clients, in an effort to force the government to dismiss the charges. Although Cline declined to be interviewed for this story, he has said that the use of classified information is necessary in assuring that defendants are accorded due process and receive fair trials.

In the Libby case, Cline has frustrated prosecutors by demanding, as part of pretrial discovery, more than 10 months of the President's Daily Brief, or PDBs, the president's morning intelligence briefing. The reports are among the most highly classified documents in government, not only because they often contain sensitive intelligence and methods, but also because they indicate what the president and policy makers consider to be the most pressing national security threats. In the past, the Bush administration has defied bipartisan requests from the Intelligence committees in Congress to turn over PDBs for review.

After Cline demanded the PDBs, Fitzgerald wrote to him on January 9 that the prosecutor's office has only "received a very discrete amount of material relating to PDBs" and "never requested copies of PDBs" themselves, in part because "they are extraordinarily sensitive documents which are usually highly classified." Moreover, Fitzgerald wrote, only a relatively small number of PDB pages included reference to Wilson's trip to Niger.

But Cline has insisted that it is imperative for his client's defense to be able to review the PDBs because part of Libby's defense is that he may have had a faulty memory regarding conversations he had with government officials and reporters regarding Plame, in that he had so many other pressing issues to consider every day as chief of staff and national security adviser to the vice president.

http://nationaljournal.com/about/njweekly/stories/2006/0209nj1.htm#

[stop the bleeding]

10. is this material the same as the 277 PDB's - from the OP

"received a very discrete amount of material relating to PDBs" - from your post

[Rose Siding]

19. Fitz says Cline is asking for 277 pdbs

and that the request is ridiculous.

[stop the bleeding]

9. Ok - what other procedural moves does Libby have left before trial?

this seems like he is getting to the end of the rope for these types of moves.

[sabra]

11. having his boss saying he can declassify anything he wants?

[Greeby]

18. End of the rope?

Very apt choice of words when we're discussing a traitor ;)

[wtmusic]

12. If it is "evidence" then isn't Libby entitled to it?

I thought discovery meant both sides must provide all evidence in their possession to opposing counsel pretrial. :shrug:

[keopeli]

14. It has to be relevant to be evidence. n/t

[wtmusic]

16. It says that Libby is requesting "evidence"

probably an error.

It's my understanding that anything Fitz is using for evidence must be provided to the defense. This sounds more like Libby making absurd demands on the DOJ just to tie them in knots.

[HereSince1628]

15. Evidence of what? Only things related to the charges I think.

The idea here is to take advantage of the expected Bush/Cheney claims of national security and executive priviledge.

When Libby's lawyer doesn't get the stuff he will claim he can't give his client the best defense. He'll keep shit tied up until January 2009 when Bush will pardon the whole lot.

[WinkyDink]

17. IF Fitz intends to use it as such.

[DoYouEverWonder]

26. They are asking for information

that has nothing to do with the charges.

At this point, Libby needs to ask the WH for these files, not Fitzgerald, if he wants this information.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

20. Fitz can't get them anyway, right. First they have to be declassified

and de facto prez Cheney won't do that. BUT, I wish they would be declassified ! Just think - I would love to read some of them:

"Now, George, George, Pay attention, now. One more time, now Iraq is the country we invaded, Iran is the one we will invade next, ok !"

[Mithras61]

21. Since when is it the prosecutor's job...

to provide the Defense councel materials that the Defense wants that the Prosecution neither has nor needs? How does ANY of this request pertain to the perjury charge as specified?

Fitz only has limited excerpts from the PDBs, which have been provided. If Libby & team want the full PDBs, they need to subpoena them and get turned down flat just like anyone else.

Saying that the defendant can't get a fair trial without compromising national security is a b.s. defense and he (and Cline) KNOW it. The judge (unless s/he is a complete moron or is bought & paid for) knows it too, but has to give the defense the right to ask for it (hey, they can ask, but it doesn't mean they'll get what they want - that's always part of a defense strategy - ask for the outrageous because SOMETIMES you get it).

[Melissa G]

23. Way to fight BS, Fitz! n/t

[Catherine Vincent]

24. Go Fitz!

Show 'em what you're made of!

[Pryderi]

25. Rachel Maddow pointed it out it worked for Ollie North. It'll probably

work for Libby:

DAVID GERGEN, FORMER PRESIDENTIAL ADVISER: This is a significant development, Wolf, in this whole case. Because if Libby testified that he was authorized by superiors, Libby was very high up in the White House. He was the chief of staff to the vice president. There are not many other people in the White House more superior than that. And you're down to a very small handful and obviously a lot of fingers are going to be pointed at the vice president himself in this question. And we don't know whether he's saying the vice president versus others. But it really does bring it smack in the middle of the White House now that there were people at the top level of the White House who were telling Mr. Libby to reveal highly classified information in order to rebut critics on the war in Iraq.

And secondly, it does raise the question of whether that authorization Mr. Libby may have been told to discredit Mrs. Wilson, the wife of the CIA agent. So it has both political and legal implications. I think the political implications are large. Legally it does mean that Scooter Libby may be arguing as Oliver North did earlier, basically a lot of what he did was authorized by others. Therefore, as in the Oliver North case, legally he may be a lot closer to acquittal than anybody thought.

http://cnnstudentnews.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0602/09/sitroom.03.html