Prosecutors attack Libby's credibility

[cal04]

Prosecutors told jurors in the CIA leak case Tuesday that former vice presidential aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's story was too incredible to be believed.

In closing arguments of the month long trial, prosecutor Peter Zeidenberg said it's hard to believe that Libby would forget about Plame since he was eagerly trying to discredit her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who had accused the Bush administration of doctoring prewar intelligence on
Iraq.

"It's simply not credible to believe he would forget this information about Wilson's wife," Zeidenberg said. "It's ludicrous."

On a TV screen, Zeidenberg displayed a flow chart showing the faces of several Bush administration officials who testified to telling Libby about Plame. From Libby, Zeidenberg drew arrows to people who said Libby talked to them about Plame.

"Is it conceivable that all these witnesses would make the same mistake, the same error in their memory?" Zeidenberg said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070220/ap_on_go_pr_wh/cia_leak_trial

[rfranklin]

1. Gee, that's a tough thing to do...

after all, the Bush administration and its minions have such a track record of truthiness.

[tridim]

2. BushCo sucks at coverups

That fact has been proved again and again, yet they all still walk free.

So, they suck at coverup but excel at staying above the law.

[cui bono]

13. They don't need to cover up.

When no one will come after them.

:grr:

[tridim]

20. But they still do, it's a reflex reaction for them. n/t

[Rosa Luxemburg]

3. Libby was good at remembering what he didn't say

also for someone who was just TOO busy to remember he found many hours to meet with Judy Judy.

[MGKrebs]

4. So, he didn't remember until AFTER his grand jury testimony

that he had a bad memory?

[Whoa_Nelly]

5. Am sure Cheney (or Rove, etc.) hasn't forgotten who was in on the SECRET energy meetings

That SCOTUS ruled no one needs to see. :sarcasm:

Such short memories, such finely remembered moments of screwing the American public and the world at large :mad:

[Rosa Luxemburg]

7. when do we get to see these?

30 years time?

[Laura PourMeADrink]

6. I love this line:

So, Zeidenberg said, Libby concocted a story about learning it from Russert rather than Cheney. Russert says that conversation never happened. For that to be believed, Zeidenberg said, Libby had to forget nine conversations about Plame and invent two others.

[Critters2]

18. Zeidenburg?

Is he the big lobster? Sorry, but that really was the first thought out of my head.

[cal04]

8. Prosecution to jury: Witnesses prove Libby lied

NEW: It's "not a case of forgetting," prosecution says in closing argument
• NEW: Testimony leaves no doubt I. Lewis "Scooter" lied, a prosecutor says
• Ex-Dick Cheney aide charged with lying about how CIA operative's name leaked
• Acts of "good faith" negate any crimes, Libby's attorneys say

POSTED: 2:04 p.m. EST, February 20, 2007


(snip)
"It's not a case about scapegoating, it's not a case about conspiracies. It's not a case about bad memories, and it's not a case about forgetting," Zeidenberg said at the start of the prosecution's closing arguments.

(snip)
Zeidenberg told the jurors that about a month ago special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald "stood before you and told you he expected the government would prove beyond reasonable doubt that this case was about lying."

Libby "lied to the FBI and the grand jury about how he learned about Joseph Wilson's wife, Valerie (Plame) Wilson, who he talked to about Mr. Wilson's wife and what he said when he discussed Mr. Wilson's wife with others," the lawyer said.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/02/20/cia.leak/index.html?section=cnn_latest

[jsamuel]

9. The defense is on the ropes. Totally going for jury nullification.

[ClintonTyree]

10. All they have to do is get to one juror...

and if anyone can extort, threaten and compromise a single person, it's the Bush attack machine. The weapons they have at their disposal to turn a jury are limitless. This is what I fear most: not a pardon from Bush, that's a given, but that there's a hung jury and Scooter scoots off free as a bird and the Bushits just laugh at the American justice system. Again.

[oldtime dfl_er]

19. I've heard this theory elsewhere

but I don't understand it. How would jury nullification work in this case? And does Walton have any recourse if the jury chooses to ignore the evidence and let Libby walk?

[oasis]

11. Libby's orange jumpsuit awaits. (eom)

[Independent_Liberal]

12. Isn't Zeidenberg also prosecuting some of the Abramoff stuff?

[cal04]

14. Prosecutor and Defense Sum Up Libby Case

(snip)
At the trial’s beginning, Mr. Zeidenberg recalled, Mr. Wells “painted a very different picture,” declaring that high administration officials wanted to make Mr. Libby “a sacrificial lamb” to deflect blame from others amid the furor over the unmasking of the C.I.A. operative’s name.

“Did you hear any evidence about a campaign, a White House campaign, to scapegoat Mr. Libby?” Mr. Zeidenberg said. “There was no such evidence,” he said, only “unfulfilled promises” from Mr. Wells that there would be.

When it was his turn, Mr. Wells scoffed at the prosecution’s case, saying it was based on “he said, she said,” and that there was more than enough reasonable doubt for an acquittal.

And despite the prosecutor’s assertions, Mr. Wells insisted that there was plenty of evidence that Mr. Libby was being abandoned by the White House, which hoped to limit the damage over the operative’s exposure by letting Mr. Libby “be the public scapegoat.”



http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/20/washington/20cnd-libby.html?hp

[cal04]

15. Libby Live: Fitzgerald’s Rebuttal

FiTZUP!

Madness. Madness. Outrageous, THe govt brought a case abotu 2 phone calls. And they just want you to speculate. The defense wishes that were so. Saying it, Saying it loudly, pounding the table, doesn't change the facts.

Is this case about 2 reporters, that's it? This is about a one on one he said she said.

It's a he said he said he said he said she said she said she said he said (shows the graphic of nine people)

Is this the greatest coincidence in the world. Tat the only person he said he talked to forgot it. It's not one on one, it's all the evidence taken together.

Maybe the best example is to focus on Russert. He wants you to believe that Russert has to be proof beyond reasonable doubt When you saw witnesses on stand, you saw them look me in the eye, I'll tell you that Russert alone can give you proof beyond reasonable doubt. You don't need Russert to convict on Russert charge. Now you're saying I've lost my mind. One part of this is, that I knew it as if it were new. No one wished this, but if Tim Russert were run over by a bus and went to that great newsroom in the sky, you could still find plenty of evidence that Libby was not surprised when he heard this from Russert. The first day he briefed about Plame, he told Schmall about.

more
http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/02/20/libby-live-fitzgeralds-rebuttal

[Iceburg]

16. Fitz: "There is a cloud over the VP"

Fitz: There is a cloud over the VP. He wrote those columns, he had those meetings, He sent Libby off to the meeting with Judy. Where Plame was discussed. That cloud remains because the denfendant obstructed justice. That cloud was there. That cloud is something that we just can’t pretend isn’t there.

http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/02/20/libby-live-fitzgeralds-rebuttal/

[Critters2]

17. What credibility? nt

[Major Hogwash]

21. I give the jury until Friday to decide that Libby is guilty.

I don't think the defense rebutted anything that the prosecution provided as evidence or testimony.