1 Boring Old Man

Excerpts from the tape of Libby’s Grand Jury testimony are beginning to appear on the Internet. The icon on the right will play an MP3 recording of what Scooter had to say about his call with Tim Russert in March 2004. It’s a pretty detailed report of what he says happened. I can’t find any record that Libby wrote down something about the call in his notes. I think it’s worth listening to [7 minutes]. He says that Russert told him that Valerie Plame, Wilson’s wife, was widely known to be a C.I.A. employee among reporters – sort of out of the blue.

Russert, as we know, in his testimony at Libby’s Trial denies that he said it – denies that he’d ever heard anything about Wilson’s wife at that point in time [from Firedoglake.com]:

Patrick Fitzgerald: When did you return from vacation?
Tim Russert: On Tuesday, the 8th
Patrick Fitzgerald: Talk to Scooter Libby that week?
Tim Russert: Yes, don’t remember the day.
Patrick Fitzgerald: Tell me about the call.
Tim Russert: I was in my office, call came through, he was agitated about something he had seen on Hardball. I had not seen the program.
Patrick Fitzgerald: What programs?
Tim Russert: I was later able to learn, Jul. 8th and 9th.
Patrick Fitzgerald: Did he call you often?
Tim Russert: No.
Patrick Fitzgerald: How could you tell he was upset? What did he say?
Tim Russert: "What the hell is going on with Hardball?" "I’m tired of hearing my name on the air all the time." "What he’s saying isn’t true."
Patrick Fitzgerald: What did you tell him?
Tim Russert: I said it wasn’t my responsibility, so I gave him names (list them)
Patrick Fitzgerald: At any time did you discuss the wife of Joseph Wilson?
Tim Russert: No, because I didn’t know who she was until several days later
Patrick Fitzgerald: Did Libby ever tell you?
Tim Russert: No.

This is the essence of Fitzgerald’s case. He believes that Libby thought that Russert would hide behind the First Amendment and refuse to testify [which Russert, indeed, tried to do]. He further seems to think that some of the widespread leaking to reporters was an attempt to make what Libby said true – to make Plame’s identity into gossip in the circle of Washington reporters.

Patrick Fitzgerald skillfully outmaneuvered his quarry. From our perspective having heard the Prosecution’s case, we marvel that Libby could have ever imagined that he could tell such an elaborate whopper of a lie and get away with it. If his notes hadn’t already revealed that he heard about Valerie Plame from Cheney, I’ll bet he would have said Russert was his first awareness at all. As it was, he invented an Amnesiac period in between Cheney and Russert. But we are hearing Fitzgerald’s case after a ton of sleuthing, and the success at forcing both Tim Russert and Judith Miller to testify. As Dan Froomkin points out today [Washington Journalism on Trial], Fitzgerald did the work of the Washington Press Corps for them, while they hid from their jobs as investigative reporters. Libby’s testimony is laughable, only because Patrick Fitzgerald made it that way.

This story told by Scooter Libby is pretty elaborate. It shows signs of a lot of thought and planning. He’s not shooting from the hip. He’s working from a script. And it wasn’t just his script. Karl Rove had a copy too. He was playing the reporter rumor-mill card too. He just had enough sense [or sociopathy] to go in and correct his mis-statements voluntarily as it became apparent that his story was coming into question. He "found" lost emails to explain his return to the Grand Jury. Libby was in too deep to use this ploy.

This planned deceit was no less elaborate than the Administration’s campaign to get us into a War with Iraq – a war many of us think was primarily motivated by a desire to get access to Iraq’s oil reserves. The Bush Administration has all been an elaborate and concerted manipulation, scripted from the start. Patrick Fitzgerald has done his part, no matter how this Trial comes out. The rest is up to us…