I Can’t Remember What I Don’t Remember: Libby Trial Recap

[Demeter]

http://www.roryoconnor.org/blog/?p=232

The Scooter Libby perjury and obstruction of justice trial continues today with the government’s case for the prosecution. The early word from the court’s media room – where I spent last week liveblogging the sensational court case that is riveting Washington and much of the rest of the nation — is that much of the next day or two will be spent hearing Libby’s own words as he spoke them while testifying to the grand jury he is charged with deceiving.

Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has convinced Judge Reggie B. Walton that audiotapes of Libby’s closed-door testimony should be entered into evidence, and he is set to play about eight hours of them. First, however, lawyers for the opposing sides will argue over the public release of those tapes.

Judge Walton has previously ordered that trial evidence be released after each court session. But Libby’s lawyers say the sworn statements Libby gave the grand jury about his conversations with Vice President Dick Cheney and journalists are sensitive – and that the release of the tapes might prejudice Libby’s right to a fair trial.

The tapes would certainly be given big play, and although jurors are under court order to avoid the media, defense attorneys argue it may be impossible. ‘’Although it cannot be assumed that the jury will ignore the court’s warnings to pay no attention to reports on this case that appear in the news media, likewise it cannot be ignored that this is a politically charged trial taking place in the most politically aware city in the nation,'’ Libby’s attorneys wrote in court documents filed this weekend. ‘’Press scrutiny has been intense and the risk of inadvertent taint is not insignificant.”

.....there is a truly frightening level of dysfunction at the top-level nexus of politics and media in America. Nearly a dozen witnesses have been called thus far from the State Department, CIA, the White House and the mainstream press. The most common reactions to their testimony thus far have been incredulity, ridicule and embarrassment, as literally one witness after another forgot key details – even entire meetings – involving an affair that has arguably endangered the lives of hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people. It was almost enough to make one shamed –at being a journalist, and at times at being an American citizen…

So who you gonna believe in a case that revolves around memories – and when everyone’s memory seems to be failing miserably? Will there be enough reasonable doubt from the faulty memories of the prosecution’s many witnesses introduced into the minds of the jury members? Or will they decide that with such a preponderance of evidence against Libby, he must have been lying – and not simply “misremembering” – what he knew and when he knew it?

Is this anyway to run a country? You bet it isn’t…

This entry was posted on Monday, February 5th, 2007 at 2:24 pm and is filed under Columns, MBALibbyTrial. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

[orpupilofnature57]

1. Ronnie Ray-guns paved the way in unaccountability using media & Govt