http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2007/01/plamemania_the_.html#moreJanuary 08, 2007
Plamemania: The Evidence, the Cooper Charge
by emptywheel
In an effort to lay out what to expect from the Libby trial, I'm going to outline the charges against Libby along with the evidence we know (or suspect) to exist relating to those charges. IANAL, so I'm not going to treat the quality of that evidence. But this is what we know to exist so far (feel free to add in bits I've missed). I'll treat the false statements and perjury charges in pairs, starting here with the charges relating to Libby's July 12 conversations with journalists, particularly Matt Cooper.
The Charges
These charges, count three and count five in the indictment, both relate to what Libby said when he told Cooper (and, for the perjury charges, other journalists) that Valerie Wilson worked at the CIA. This is what Libby claimed to have said to Cooper in his grand jury testimony:
Q. And it's your specific recollection that when you told Cooper about Wilson's wife working at the CIA, you attributed that fact to what reporters –
A. Yes.
Q. – plural, were saying. Correct?
A. I was very clear to say reporters are telling us that because in my mind I still didn't know it as a fact. I thought I was – all I had was this information that was coming in from the reporters.
. . . .
Q. And at the same time you have a specific recollection of telling him, you don't know whether it's true or not, you're just telling him what reporters are saying?
A. Yes, that's correct, sir. And I said, reporters are telling us that, I don't
know if it's true. I was careful about that because among other things, I wanted to be clear I didn't know Mr. Wilson. I don't know – I think I said, I don't know if he has a wife, but this is what we're hearing.
Libby testified that he told Cooper he had heard of Plame's CIA employ from reporters. And he testified that he told Cooper he didn't know whether that fact was true or not.
But Fitzgerald will argue that Libby simply confirmed to Cooper that Plame worked at the CIA, offering no mention of how he knew it nor of whether he knew it to be true or not.
LIBBY did not advise Cooper on or about July 12, 2003 that reporters were telling the administration that Wilson’s wife worked for the CIA, nor did LIBBY advise him that LIBBY did not know whether this was true; rather, LIBBY confirmed for Cooper, without qualification, that LIBBY had heard that Wilson’s wife worked at the CIA;
The charge is important for Fitzgerald because, if he can prove it, it shows that Libby deliberately leaked Plame's identity to at least three journalists (Cooper, Judy, and an unnamed journalist whom Libby appears to have claimed was Glen Kessler), then made up a story after the fact to discount the deliberate aspect of the leak. That is, this alleged lie might prove a concerted campaign to leak Plame's identity that Libby subsequently tried to explain away.
Much more at link....
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