The indictment (PDF) today of the Vice President’s Chief of Staff prompts one note and one tidbit from the past. First, note that Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald made it clear in his press conference today that if opponents of the war in Iraq are looking to this prosecution to vindicate their cause, they will be sorely disappointed. This is about a discrete incident in which, the prosecutors allege, Lewis Libby committed perjury and obstructed the grand jury investigation. It is significant that there is no conspiracy charge.
Second, you may recall that Lewis Libby was the lawyer for tax cheat, international fugitive, and “traitor” Marc Rich. You may also recall that Rich is one of the many scoundrels Bill Clinton pardoned on his way out of the White House, after Rich’s ex-wife made substantial donations to Clinton’s Presidential Library. Some folks on the right thought Libby was less-than-honorable back when this happened:
Libby, who said his law firms collected as much as $2 million for representing Rich, testified he had nothing to do with the application that led to clemency for Rich. He declined to say whether he approved of the decision to pardon Rich, but he conceded that he called Rich on January 22, two days after the pardon, to “congratulate him on having reached a result that he had sought for a long time.” Libby testified he made the call from his home to make clear that he was calling in a personal capacity, and not as a representative of the Bush administration.
In a particularly damaging exchange with Pennsylvania Democrat Paul Kanjorski, Libby agreed that Rich might be characterized as a traitor for fleeing the country and renouncing his American citizenship. Kanjorski asked Libby why he would call a traitor to congratulate him on his good fortune in winning a pardon. Visibly uncomfortable, Libby had no answer.
You can read more about the pardons in this report.
You probably won’t hear lots of Republicans arguing that Libby’s alleged perjury is not serious, and they shouldn’t.
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Now that is something I did not know. Thank you for bringing this all to our attention. While it is not necessarily germane to Mr. Libby’s indictment or an indication of guilt, that Mr. Libby was so careless in his praise of Mr. Rich’s success is very interesting. Wow. I am impressed that you should pull this story out of the void which is my ignorance. Where was I when the world went wailing past?
Great post.
(As one commentator in Boston stated today, Mr. Libby has been indicted for telling a lie about telling the truth about a man [Joe Wilson] who lied.)
Honestly, I plead ignorant on all counts. I’ve no reference point that is not framed by cynicism. The bottom line for me is this: There is a contradiction in the hearts of Democrats. No, it is not that they supported Bill Clinton when he committed the same crimes as Mr. Libby. It’s that they have wailed and moaned about the reckless, treasonous act of outing a CIA agent. The contradiction? The Democrats (particularly the most left-leaning Democrats) have historically HATED the CIA since time immemorial, seeing that agency as naught more than an extension of American imperialism and hegemony. Shame on the Democrats for this hypocrisy; and shame on the media for not pointing it out.
I am all for Scooter Libby receiving the punishment his alleged guilt deserves. But his treachery hardly bothers me when I compare his acts to the feigned concern for CIA secrecy suddenly sacrosanct among Democrats. Surely their posturing and umbrage is a treason of the mind.
I commend you for your work and thank you for letting me share my thoughts, fragmented as they are,
Peace abundant!
Gnade
Fitzgerald did not charge him for revealing the name of a CIA agent. If he could, he would have. The indictment is for lying and obstruction — “throwing sand in the umpire’s face” as Fitzgerald put it today. Did that prevent the umpire from detecting and being able to prove the underlying crime? Or was there no underlying crime to detect, and Libby just threw the sand out of carelessness, fear, or stupidity? Fitzgerald explained that we may never know, precisely because the obstruction occurred.
I tend to think that there was no underlying crime. It seems unlikely from what I’ve read that Plame was, in fact, a covert agent. Fitzgerald refused to take a position on that question at the press conference today, arguing that it is irrelevant to the charges in the indictment. Also, since there is no conspiracy charge, it seems unlikely that either Libby or the others involved had the intent required by the statute to out an agent on purpose and with bad motive.
Nice summation, but it needs one slight correction. Libby was indicted for lying about telling the truth about the wife of a man who lied.
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