1 Boring Old Man

Like a lot of people, I focused on the document Theory of Defense before the Libby Trial. I even recall thinking that the colored phrases below were odd. was confident was kind of a wishy-washy way to claim he didn’t leak to Novak. And had not disclosed classified information sounded like a Rovian parsing that might mean had not disclosed anything you can prove I knew was classified information.

But those were my observations, the observations of a mere mortal. emptywheel, with the eyes of a god, saw more. She went back and read it again, noticing that the final version filed with the court said something different.

Mr. Libby further contends that when the investigation began, he knew that he had not provided any information about Ms. Wilson to Robert Novak. He also contends that he did not know that Ms. Wilson’s employment status was covert or classified and that he did not knowingly disclose classified information about Ms. Wilson to any reporters.

Her analyses of these differences are summarized in her post, Evolving Defense Claims, on The Next Hurrah. Her post covers a lot of ground, but this is the part that struck a chord with me:

A seeming acknowledgment that Libby did leak classified information to journalists

… it will make it easier for Fitzgerald to argue that Libby believed he was might to be busted on an IIPA charge, thereby making it easier for him to prove motive.

It also cedes the issue the right has been wailing about for so long. The Administration (a collection of Scooter Libby, Karl Rove, Ari Fleischer, and Richard Armitage) did out someone who had been classified and possibly even covert. That’ll make the Wilson civil suit considerably more interesting.

Most importantly, it solves on problem for the defense but creates another one. The problem it solves is another motive question. One reason, Fitzgerald will argue, that Libby lied and said he learned of Plame’s ID from journalists is that it provided a non-classified channel for Libby to have learned of Plame. It seems here that Libby is prepared to cede that he did, in fact, learn of Plame from Cheney. But that Libby just didn’t know that most people in counter-proliferation are covert. In other words, Libby is distracting some attention from his attempt to launder his knowledge of Plame through journalists.

But the problem it creates is that, if Fitzgerald ever proves that Cheney ordered Libby to leak Plame’s identity on July 8 as I think he might, it removes the claim that the NIE lie has long served. That is–Libby has ceded his ability to argue, at future time, that Cheney declassified Plame’s identity and therefore made it peachy for Libby to leak it through Judy Judy Judy.

So, emptywheel‘s encyclopedic knowledge of the details of the Plame narrative strikes again – the gods just know things. In the process of covering his backside, Libby is exposing Cheney’s – always a delightful development.

But the thing it says most of all to me is that Libby’s legal arguments are just semantic – the games guilty people play in court. Scooter Libby is guilty of exactly what he has been charged with – Perjury in his testimony to the Grand Jury and Obstruction of Justice. Moreover Scooter Libby and his boss are guilty of participating in the outing of an undercover C.I.A. Agent [I would bet good money that they knew she was undercover, but they didn’t know until after they’d pulled it off that it was against the law to expose her identity].