Five Govt. Agencies Looking To See If They Can Censor Libby Case Evidence

[bigtree]

Monday February 13, 2006

http://beta.abc3340.com/news/stories/0206/302441.html

{snip}

Washington (AP) - Five government agencies are reviewing classified evidence that I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby may want to use at his trial to fight perjury and obstruction-of-justice charges, according to a court transcript made public Monday. During a Feb. 3 hearing, Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald told a federal judge that the review of classified materials is being done by the CIA, National Security Council, National Security Agency, State Department and several components within the White House, including the offices of the president and vice president.

The outcome of those reviews will determine whether the case against Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, gets bogged down in a legal battle pitting the government's desire to protect national security secrets against a defendant's right to a fair trial.

The case against Libby is on two tracks - one public, one secret. U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton and lawyers for both sides went into a secret session after a public hearing Feb. 3 to discuss classified evidence that could play a role in the case.

Libby's handwriting is difficult to read, the lawyers said, and has slowed down the reviews by the intelligence agencies.

full article: http://beta.abc3340.com/news/stories/0206/302441.html

[bigtree]

1. who dirested these agencies to 'review' the evidence?

What were they told to supress?

[mom cat]

16. Let the cover up quagmire deepen.

[Beetwasher]

2. Guess Those Constitutional Rights Come in Handy for SOME PEOPLE

n/t

[bigtree]

3. Libby will have all of the government at his disposal for his defense.

Fitz will have to fight to keep relevant info from being redacted.

[UTUSN]

4. K&R n/t

[bigtree]

5. Talk about it

talk about it . . .

[blue4barb]

6. K/R. Interesting note that Libby's penmanship is bad enough

to slow down the investigation. What will they think of next for stall tactics?

[omega minimo]

7. !

[Wilms]

8. K&R n/t

[ck4829]

9. The Groups that want to Censor this case are the groups that...

are involved with the BushCoup and the 'faulty' intelligence that led us to Iraq.

[madokie]

10. mark my words, libby will request documents that can't possibly

be declassified and used so they will throw the case out because he can't get a 'fair' trial. The plan from the start.

[dusty64]

11. American taxpayers

forced to help defend a fuckin TRAITOR! Talk about outrage fatigue.

[Neil Lisst]

12. The game plan is to use govt secrecy policy to derail the trial.

This way, Bush can send a number of attack teams to court to haggle over admissibility and handling of materials.

The game plan is to keep the case from going to trial until Bush finally has to pardon Libby late in his administration.

[BR_Parkway]

13. That's why Fitz only indicted on perjury and obstruction - it's his

own testimony before the Grand Jury. All this classified stuff is just designed to bog things down. Their arguement is "he didn't mean to lie, he was just overwhelmingly busy with all this important gov't work, most of which happens to be classified"

That's why Fitz just went for the stuff he knew he could get in front of a court and make stick. The only defense to perjury is the truth - not how distracted you are. And when it's you making conflicting statements in your own testimony (backed up by a bunch of other witnesses) it's pretty hard to say this is the truth, and I didn't actually lie to the GJ before.

[bigtree]

14. I guess this means he won't get to the WMD lies that led them

to try to discredit Joe Wilson.

[BR_Parkway]

15. Not so fast, he uses the most certain convictions to put pressure

on Scooter to get him to a plea deal, then uses that deal to go after the next link in the chain.

It's the same strategy Fitz uses in all his public corruption and mob cases.

[EC]

17. If they could keep secrets, there wouldn't be a case

in the first place....

Didn't Ollie North get off when the evidence against him was declared classified?