Poll: Libby indictment hits major nerve By Will Lester, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON â The recent indictment of Vice President Cheney's top aide has struck a nerve with the American public. Four in five, 79%, said the indictment of former Cheney aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby on perjury and other charges is important to the nation, according to a poll by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. Pew noted that in September 1998, 65% said President Clinton's lies under oath were important. Clinton was impeached over his handling of an affair with Monica Lewinsky, but was acquitted by the Senate on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice. Libby was charged with lying to investigators and a grand jury during an investigation of his role in revealing the identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame, wife of an outspoken critic of the war against Iraq. Most Americans, six in 10, say they do not think the news about Libby's indictment has gotten too much coverage. The concerns about Libby's case come at a time that a growing number of people, 43%, now say U.S. and British leaders were mostly lying when they claimed before the Iraq war that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, while an equal number said they were misinformed by bad intelligence. That's up from 31% who felt in February 2004 that the leaders were lying, while 49% said they got bad intelligence. Two-thirds of Democrats say U.S. and British political leaders were lying about weapons of mass destruction and half of independents feel that way. Only one in 10 Republicans said that was the case. The telephone poll of 1,201 adults was taken Nov. 3-6 and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
No choice. No deal. He merely lied and was indicted for such. At no time does Fitzgerald allege that the Plame investigation was even a criminal investigation. The CIA filed a complaint with Justice and the DOJ appointed Fitzgerald to conduct it. In the end Libby's obstruction was nullified because it came to light that Cheney and others were blabbing about Plame even prior to Libby knowing who she was. It's clearly "provable" that Libby outed Plame publicly. Why wasn't he indicted for such? Because Fitzgerald isn't sure the outing itself was illegal.
By Christmas most American's will be back to associating the name "Libby" with canned fruits and vegtables.
Perhaps, but looking at tonight's elections of democratic governors, etc. the necessary damage may have already been done.
I doubt that will happen. Libby was one of Marc Rich's lawyers on the pardon issue. In fact Libby called Rich the day after the pardon to personaly contratulate him on the success of the pardon. Libby firm pocketed 2 Million from Rich on that deal.
The CIA Leak: Plame Was Still Covert Newsweek Feb. 13, 2006 issue - Newly released court papers could put holes in the defense of Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, in the Valerie Plame leak case. Lawyers for Libby, and White House allies, have repeatedly questioned whether Plame, the wife of White House critic Joe Wilson, really had covert status when she was outed to the media in July 2003. But special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald found that Plame had indeed done "covert work overseas" on counterproliferation matters in the past five years, and the CIA "was making specific efforts to conceal" her identity, according to newly released portions of a judge's opinion. (A CIA spokesman at the time is quoted as saying Plame was "unlikely" to take further trips overseas, though.) Fitzgerald concluded he could not charge Libby for violating a 1982 law banning the outing of a covert CIA agent; apparently he lacked proof Libby was aware of her covert status when he talked about her three times with New York Times reporter Judith Miller. Fitzgerald did consider charging Libby with violating the so-called Espionage Act, which prohibits the disclosure of "national defense information," the papers show; he ended up indicting Libby for lying about when and from whom he learned about Plame. The new papers show Libby testified he was told about Plame by Cheney "in an off sort of curiosity sort of fashion" in mid-Juneâbefore he talked about her with Miller and Time magazine's Matt Cooper. Libby's trial has been put off until January 2007, keeping Cheney off the witness stand until after the elections. A spokeswoman for Libby's lawyers declined to comment on Plame's status. âMichael Isikoff