Here comes some pre-Fitzmas gifts falling down from Santa's slay.
Sunday's Washington Post tells about the details of "When and How" Fitz figured out the Libby's allegation of CIA leak. Reported by Carol Leonnig and Jim Vandehei (as usual.) It starts:
Libby may have tried to mask Cheney's role
Critics say aide attempted to obscure VP's legal culpability in CIA leak case
WASHINGTON | NOV. 13 -- In the opening days of the CIA leak investigation in early October 2003, FBI agents working the case already had in their possession a wealth of valuable evidence. There were White House phone and visitor logs, which clearly documented the administration's contacts with reporters.
Vandehei and leonning's article continues into the interesting detail:
Libby's note is Fitzgerald's "Guide Book" for opening investigation
And they had something that law enforcement officials would later describe as their "guidebook" for the opening phase of the investigation: the daily, diary-like notes compiled by I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, then Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, that chronicled crucial events inside the White House in the weeks before the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame was publicly disclosed.
Currently Jim Vandehei becomes a staple on "CountDown w/Keith Olbermann" when the issue relates with this "Ovalgate."
[BTW, I'd like to avoid to call this probe as "Plamegate." It reminds me a categorization of scandals -- similar to "Profumo Affair" -- leaves some bad impression over the name of Plame/Mrs. Wilson. It humiliates her pride and professionalism. The leakers ARE the Oval Office staff, not her. Rather I'd like to call it simply, and exactly "Ovalgate" ]
Then we immediately come to the description about the key role of Cheney here:
Note showed Libby heard from Cheney
The investigators had much of this information before they sat down with Libby on Oct. 14, 2003, and first heard from him what prosecutors now allege was a demonstrably false version of what happened. Libby said that, when he told other reporters about the CIA operative and her marriage to Iraq war critic Joseph C. Wilson IV, he believed he had first learned the information from Tim Russert of NBC News and was merely passing along journalistic hearsay. This was an explanation made dubious by Libby's own notes, which showed that he previously had learned about Plame from his boss, Cheney.
Here's the question we all wonder:
Why Libby exposed the sources to Fitz?
In the aftermath of Libby's recent five-count indictment, this curious sequence raises a question of motives that hangs over the investigation: Why would an experienced lawyer and government official such as Libby leave himself so exposed to prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald?
Libby, according to Fitzgerald's indictment, gave a false story to agents and, later, to a grand jury, even though he knew investigators had his notes, and presumably knew that several of his White House colleagues had already provided testimony and documentary evidence that would undercut his own story. And his interviews with the FBI in October and two appearances before the grand jury in March 2004 came at a time when there were increasingly clear signs that some of the reporters with whom Libby discussed Plame could soon be freed to testify -- and provide starkly different and damning accounts to the prosecutor.
So... did he intentionally give the false testimony to cover up his boss?
Cheney culpable?
To critics, the timing suggests an attempt to obscure Cheney's role, and possibly his legal culpability. The vice president is shown by the indictment to be aware of and interested in Plame and her CIA status long before her cover was blown. Even some White House aides privately wonder whether Libby was seeking to protect Cheney from political embarrassment. One of them noted with resignation, "Obviously, the indictment speaks for itself."
In addition, Cheney also advised Libby on a media strategy to counter Plame's husband, former ambassador Wilson, according to a person familiar with the case.
After the comments of Harry Reid, Libby's defence team, and legal critics analysis, the issue comes to the intricate timelines, which must have been a tipping point for Fitz investigation:
But the emerging case against Libby is bringing more about Fitzgerald's investigation into public view. In October 2003, agents interviewed several administration officials, who described conversations they had with Libby about Plame in June and early July of 2003. Cumulatively during Fitzgerald's probe, four officials said they mentioned Plame to Libby, investigators found; three others said Libby mentioned her to them.
Key conversation
This testimony makes the story Libby offered during his first FBI interview look suspicious. He said he believed that he first learned about Plame on July 10 or July 11, 2003, in a conversation with Russert. Libby said he was surprised to learn of Plame's connection to Wilson. To Fitzgerald's team, Libby did not seek to deny that he had learned about the Plame link from Cheney -- as revealed by Libby's own notes -- but simply said it had slipped his mind that the vice president was an earlier source of the information than Russert, lawyers familiar with the case said.
(Two key figures)
Even early in the investigation, two key people were publicly known at the time to have been interviewed by the FBI: Ari Fleischer, then-White House press secretary, and Catherine Martin, a Cheney press aide. Martin had learned about Plame's employment at the CIA from another senior government official, the indictment says, and told Libby sometime in late June or the first week of July. Fleischer reportedly told investigators that, at a lunch on Monday, July 7, Libby told him that Wilson's wife worked at the CIA and confided that the information was not widely known.
(Fatal time rag)
Fitzgerald, in announcing the indictment two weeks ago, called attention to this conversation with Fleischer to show how improbable he regarded Libby's account: "What's important about that is that Mr. Libby . . . was telling Mr. Fleischer something on Monday that he claims to have learned on Thursday."
And, if this is a court drama, here's the climax scene -- Fitzing moment:
But when Libby was called to answer Fitzgerald's questions under oath before the grand jury on March 5 and again on March 24, 2004, he stuck to the story he had given in October. He repeated that he believed he had learned the information from a reporter and had forgotten Cheney had told him about Plame. He explained that he had not thought the material was classified because reporters knew it.
But Fitzgerald pressed Libby -- and not so subtly raised the specter of a coverup. "And let me ask you this directly," Fitzgerald said. "Did the fact that you knew that the law could . . . turn on where you learned the information from affect your account for the FBI -- when you told them that you were telling reporters Wilson's wife worked at the CIA but your source was a reporter rather than the vice president?"
Libby denied it: "No, it's a fact. It was a fact, that's what I told the reporters."
Now I hear a time-bomb ticking inside of Cheney's bunker.
::::::::::
LINK: MSNBC.com
"Libby may have tried to mask Cheney's role"
Original article: Washington Post page A06 –
Libby May Have Tried to Mask Cheney's Role
::::::::::