CIA Fights Libby’s Requests For PDBs

[Me.]

CIA Fights Libby’s Requests For PDBs

“The CIA filed a motion on Friday opposing Scooter Libby's request for access to the Presidential Daily Briefings (PDBs), citing substantial national security concerns at allowing any of the information contained therein become public. The motion was unsealed on Tuesday, according to the AP (via Forbes).

Gathering the materials sought by I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Cheney's former chief of staff, would take up to nine months, Marilyn Dorn, a CIA information review officer, said in a sworn statement filed in U.S. District Court.

Dorn said the CIA believes disclosure of the information would damage national security and wants a chance to be heard in court before any material is turned over to Libby, who is charged with lying in the investigation into the leak of a CIA operative's identity.

"The defense's requests clearly implicate highly classified, compartmentalized information and potential claims of executive privilege for presidential communications and the deliberative process," Dorn wrote.

"Compartmentalized" information requires a special security clearance, meaning the CIA could not assign just anyone to help gather the material Libby's lawyers want, Dorn said.” Cont…

http://firedoglake.blogspot.com/

[H2O Man]

1. Poor Scooter.

He's got to realize that he's going to be incarcerated. People might be donating to his defense fund, and there are conflicts brewing that involve his case. But he is going to prison.

[Missy Vixen]

2. I'm worried about the possibility of dismissal

>But he is going to prison.<

H20Man, let's hope that his defense team's getting shut down re: the PDB's lets them know that the time for screwing around is over. Either Libby'll flip and tell America's Hottest Prosecutor everything he wants to know, or he's going down hard.

What are your thoughts?

Julie

[rzemanfl]

4. All he has to do is run out the clock. Bush will pardon him, this is

for show. I wouldn't be surprised if the pardon were already in his lawyer's safe deposit box.

[H2O Man]

7. There is no possibility

of dismissal of the charges. None. Briefly: Team Libby challenged the "constitutionality" of Fitzgerald's appointment; one need only examine the 12-30-03 letter from James Comey to Patrick Fitzgerald, along with Comey's 8-12-05 memorandum to David Margolis to get rid of that nonsense.

Team Libby also has challenged Fitzgerald's saying that Plame was a covert agent of the CIA at the time Novak exposed her. As Michael Isikoff wrote in the first sentence of his 2-13-06 Newsweek article ("The CIA Leak: Plame Was Still Covert"), "Newly released court papers could put holes in the defense of Dick Cheney's former chief of staff ...." The fact is that the CIA has verified beyond any question that Plame was, by every definition, a covert investigator, who undertook overseas missions to investigate the proliferation of WMD, and that the Agency was attempting to keep her identity secret at the time the Cheney/WHIG exposed her.

Judge Walton is doing a fair job. The process is going well. It is slow, and I appreciate that people want it to be quicker. A year ago, there were many DUers who dismissed me for saying that the case hadn't come to a close. I think significant progress has been made.

[Me.]

3. What Do You Think He Will Do?

"What Judge Walton will do with this, though, is anyone's guess. I would seriously doubt that he will grant a dismissal motion on this, just based on his pre-emptive attempt at compromise, and I would bet he has some ideas up his judicial robes to cut through the crap on all sides and strike a balance that keeps the trial on track. I hope so, anyway, in the interests of justice. I do think that his pre-emptive maneuver bodes well, but I'm trying not to get too ahead of myself, since I have never practiced before this particular judge and am only relying on hearsay from several attornies who have been before him that he is a no nonsense, tough on crime kinda guy."

[rzemanfl]

5. No offense, but "attornies?" Where I went to law school it was

"attorneys."

[H2O Man]

9. Judge Walton has

indicated that he will probably not rule in Libby's favor on this. It's not "good news" for Libby. It supports what Fitzgerald has stated in his recent motions.

[NewJeffCT]

11. He'll only be in jail until Jan of 2009

Then, be set free when Bush pardons a bunch of people involved in Treasongate so the country can move beyond the bad memories created by this scandal.

[H2O Man]

12. That is possible.

I understand why people think it could happen. However, there is as much or more reason to think that pardons are not a realistic hope for those like Scooter to hang on to.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

6. This Is Exactly What Libby Wanted.

In the end, it is just up to the Judge's discretion. Not sure how appeals to higher courts work afterwards though.

[RazzleDazzle]

8. Aw, ferchrissake. Post the damn permalink.

[H2O Man]

10. Thanks for posting this.

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