CIA Leak: Ari Fleischer Took the Fifth, Testified Under Immunity

[Demeter]

http://www.pensitoreview.com/2007/01/24/cia-leak-ari-fleischer-took-the-fifth/

CIA Leak: Ari Fleischer Took the Fifth, Testified Under Immunity

Posted by Jon Ponder | Jan. 24, 2007, 9:02 am

I have long suspected that Ari Fleischer was up to this eyeballs in the leak of CIA agent Valerie Plame’s identity to Bob Novak. Yesterday, during the lawyers’ opening statements in the perjury trial of Scooter Libby, Fleischer’s activities at the time were revealed — as was new information that Fleischer testified about his involvement under a grant of immunity from prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald:

Fleischer was a short-timer when Plame’s name was leaked to Novak. He was replaced by Scott McClellan on July 15, 2003, the day after Novak’s column was published. the two legal teams began their courtroom battle, new information was disclosed about the leak affair, including the revelation that Ari Fleischer, White House press secretary at the time of the leak, had identified Valerie Wilson as a CIA officer to NBC News reporter David Gregory a week before the leak appeared in Robert Novak’s July 14, 2003 column, and that Fleischer, during the subsequent criminal investigation, took the Fifth Amendment and demanded (and received) immunity before testifying to Fitzgerald’s’ grand jury.

Fleischer told the grand jury that he had learned about Valerie Wilson’s CIA affiliation first from Libby and then from Dan Bartlett, the White House communications director. (This directly implicated yet two more White House officials in the scandal.) Gregory, though, did not report the information, and he later declined to talk to Fitzgerald about his conversation with Fleischer. Fitzgerald never subpoenaed him. (In a response to an email from a colleague asking about today’s disclosure, Gregory emailed, “I can’t help you, sorry.”) The first day of the trial also brought the news that after the Justice Department opened an investigation of the CIA leak in fall 2003, Cheney pressured the White House press office to make a statement clearing Libby of any wrongdoing.

What prompted all this was former Amb. Joe Wilson’s column on July 7, 2003, in the New York Times, titled, “What I Didn’t Find in Africa,” in which he accused Pres. Bush of lying about Iraq’s nuclear weapons program in his State of the Union speech in January 2003. It appears that Fleischer gave reporter David Gregory Plame’s identity within a day or two after Wilson’s article appeared.

Fleischer had announced his resignation in May 2003, and was a short-timer when Plame’s name was leaked to Novak. He was replaced by Scott McClellan on July 15, 2003, the day after Novak’s column was published.

[meow mix]

1. huh

so the getting more "family time" thing wasnt the whole story?
:popcorn:

[tanyev]

2. It never is.

[Kahuna]

3. Ah so...

:popcorn:

[soothsayer]

4. I thought the whole point of immunity was not needing to take the

5th?

[Eugene]

5. Fitzgerald Reveals Gamble in CIA Leak Ca(se) - AP

Fitzgerald Reveals Gamble in CIA Leak Ca

By MATT APUZZO, Associated Press Writer

Thursday, January 25, 2007

(01-25) 22:55 PST WASHINGTON (AP) --

Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald took a gamble three years ago
that White House press secretary Ari Fleischer might break open his
leak investigation.

As Fitzgerald's inquiry was heating up into who revealed CIA operative
Valerie Plame's name to reporters, Fleischer stepped forward with an
offer: Give me immunity from prosecution and I'll give you information
that might help your case.

What prosecutors didn't know was that Fleischer was one of the leakers.
And without immunity, he refused to talk. Not even a hint.

Prosecutors normally insist on an informal account of what a witness
will say before agreeing to immunity. It's known in legal circles as a
proffer, and Fitzgerald said Thursday that he never got one from Fleischer,
who was chief White House spokesman for the first 2 1/2 years of President
Bush's first term.

"I didn't want to give him immunity. I did so reluctantly," Fitzgerald
said in court. "I was buying a pig in a poke."

-snip-

Full article: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/01/25/national/w225556S86.DTL

[Demeter]

6. Pig Is Right

They are all pigs--no offense intended to real pigs.