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CIA Leak Case: Did Ari Fleischer admit to something he didn't do?

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sabra Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-30-07 11:46 AM
Original message
CIA Leak Case: Did Ari Fleischer admit to something he didn't do?

http://slate.com/id/2158157/entry/2158492

Dispatches From the Scooter Libby Trial

from: John Dickerson
My Surreal Day at the Libby Trial


<snip>

I was at the Scooter Libby trial to cover it, and all of a sudden, I found myself in the middle of the case. In his testimony today, former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer told the courtroom—which included me—that when I was a White House correspondent for Time magazine, he had told me that Joe Wilson's wife worked at the CIA.

He did?

Everyone had heard about Robert Novak, Matt Cooper, and Judith Miller, the reporters who had received the Valerie Plame leak. But now Ari was saying I was in that club, too.

I have a different memory. My recollection is that during a presidential trip to Africa in July 2003, Ari and another senior administration official had given me only hints. They told me to go inquire about who sent Wilson to Niger. As far as I can remember—and I am pretty sure I would remember it—neither of them ever told me that Wilson's wife worked at the CIA. In a piece I wrote about a year ago, I figured that the very reason I'd never been subpoenaed in the case or questioned by any lawyers was that I'd been given only vague guidance and not the good stuff.

...

So, how to explain Ari's testimony? I've covered him for 12 years, since I reported on tax policy and he was a spokesman for the Ways and Means committee, and he's never lied to me. Shaded, wiggled, and driven me around the bend with his spin, yes. (I wasn't a fan of his book, either.) But he never outright lied, and I don't see how it would be in his interest here. More likely, he admitted to prosecutors more than he may have actually done because better to err on the side of assuming he disclosed too much than assuming he gave over too little.

How does Ari's testimony affect the perjury and obstruction of justice case against Libby? It certainly complicates it. For starters, when this piece appears, it may get me out of my press seat and into that uncomfortable little witness box. It hurts the prosecution if Ari admitted something he didn't do, because they're relying on his memory. Libby is on trial for saying he didn't know about Wilson's wife and that he learned it from NBC's Tim Russert. Fleischer contradicts that. He claims that Libby told him about Wilson's wife at a lunch in early July, long before Libby ever talked to Russert. If they can poke holes in Ari's recollection of what he told me, they can raise doubts about what Ari remembers Scooter telling him.
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Kagemusha Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-30-07 11:50 AM
Response to Original message
1. Um, okay, this is a plea to the defense to put him (Dickerson) on the stand.
And he's speaking of his own memory as if it's 100% sacrosanct, no way there's any problems whatsoever with it, not one hole, absolutely airtight...
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The Count Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-30-07 11:51 AM
Response to Original message
2. HE TOOK THE FIFTH, he can say whatever he wants!
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Annces Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-30-07 11:59 AM
Response to Reply #2
4. He can be prosecuted for lying on the stand
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sabra Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-30-07 11:53 AM
Response to Original message
3. hmm... FoxNews just picked up this story...
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Annces Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-30-07 12:14 PM
Response to Reply #3
8. a hit piece
as they gather together to disseminate misinformation.
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Spazito Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-30-07 12:02 PM
Response to Original message
5. Ari says he told him it was "the wife", Dickerson says he didn't
It looks like David Gregory's version of what occurred would answer the question as to what was said to whom. Gregory is not on the prosecution's witness nor on the defense's witness list as per this article:

http://www.ktvu.com/news/10753573/detail.html

We do know that there have been, subsequently, more subpoenas served by the defense, Rove having received one so it is possible David Gregory could have also been "added' to the list of potential witnesses.

If the defense doesn't call upon Gregory or introduce a sworn statement by Gregory then, imo, we know that Gregory has backed up Ari's account of the conversation that day.

Dickerson sure sounds whiny though, almost like he WANTS to be a witness and is ticked that he wasn't considered important enough to "count".
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ThoughtCriminal Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-30-07 12:10 PM
Response to Original message
6. "he's never lied to me"????
How many reporters would say that?

"I've covered him for 12 years, since I reported on tax policy and he was a spokesman for the Ways and Means committee, and he's never lied to me"
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librechik Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-30-07 12:11 PM
Response to Original message
7. Dickerson is a little media whore
But Ari is a calculating fascist pig whore. Who has more credibility in this situation?

damned if I know.
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H2O Man Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-30-07 12:59 PM
Response to Original message
9. I do not trust him.
He strikes me as yet another parasite looking to latch on to the case, and make a few bucks off of it. Or, he may be a Judith Miller-type, with a more sinister agenda.
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sabra Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-30-07 01:08 PM
Response to Reply #9
10. thanks you for sharing your thoughts on the matter...
:hi:
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Catherine Vincent Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-30-07 01:14 PM
Response to Reply #9
11. I agree.
You would think any reporter would want to stay away from this case. He wants to insert himself in it. :crazy:
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