Plame vs. Wilson
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James Joyner | Monday, January 29, 2007 |
Kevin Drum finds it interesting that Ari Fleischer today testified that Scooter Libby told him, four days before Bob Novak’s story was filed, about Valerie Plame’s role in sending her husband, Joe Wilson, to Niger.
Not “Valerie Wilson,” the name she used socially, but “Valerie Plame,” her maiden name and one that she used only on agency business. . . . Novak’s use of the name “Plame” has always been one of my pet obsessions in this story, and I continue to think it’s the key to something. Maybe eventually we’ll find out what. Maybe even today.
There are two problems with this.
First, we already know that Richard Armitage was Bob Novak’s source, not Scooter Libby. Not only does Armitage admit this and Novak confirm it, but prosecutor Patrick Fitgerald made a point of emphasizing it during opening arguments.
Second, none of the testimony thus far about the timeline provides any evidence that Libby knew “the wife” as anything other than “Valerie Wilson” or “Mrs. Wilson.” That’s the name in the file Marc Grossman got from INR and that Craig Schmall had written in the margin of his notes.
So, either Fleischer’s “I believe” is simply wrong–likely swayed by press accounts which have referred to her as “Plame” all these years–or there is some missing piece in the prosecution timeline.
- Libby Trial: ‘The Wife’ Versus ‘That Woman’
- Wilson: Plame Not Clandestine When Novak Wrote Story
- Valerie Plame Was Still Covert at Time of Leak
- Novak on Plame Leak
- Valerie Plame May or May Not Leave CIA
- Libby Trial: Opening Arguments - Government (Live Blog)
- Joe Wilson Most to Blame for Ending Valerie Plame’s Career
- Libby Prosecution: Craig Schmall Testimony (Pt. 1)
- Novak: Joe Wilson’s Integrity, Not Mine, in Question
- Libby Trial: Fitzgerald Notes White House Denial of Leak
- Robert Mondavi Dies at 94
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- Huckabee Shoots Himself In The Foot In His Mouth
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- In Defense of Degree Mills
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- Judicial Activism Versus Judging
- It’s Nice to Have the Option
- McCain’s Hamas ‘Hypocrisy’
- Don Surber linked with Three quick hits...
- We Hold These Truths to be Self-Evident linked with The Hindsight Factor
Agreed that Drum may be off on the Novak thing, but if Libby was telling Fleischer how hush-hush Plame's ID was, and *if* Fleischer's "memory" is accurate, then that's significant to the case, tho not to the Novak issue.
It's easy to get tripped up. This case is *not* about Novak's outing of Plame. It's about what Libby knew, when he knew it, & whether he can make a jury think he forgot it.
Anderson,
True. None of the witnesses before Fleishcher have given any indication that the issue of "the wife" was a big deal to Libby and Cheney. What they were interested in combatting was the idea that OVP had sent Joe Wilson and that they were intentionally covering up his report to sell a vision they knew was untrue. All indications thus far are that they found about about Wilson's trip from media accounts and were thus scrambling for damage control.
Presumably the U.S. is leading with its weaker witnesses & building up, a common tho debatable tactic ... I wonder who the closer will be?
That Fleischer "remembered" the name Libby gave her as either "Plame" or "Plamay" may be significant.
It seems unlikely that Libby would have orally passed on the name as "Plamay".
Perhaps his "recollection" was wrong. Yathink?
Comments are Closed
On cross he said he wasn't sure.
On the other hand there was a Bloomberg report sometime ago that WH logs showed Novak called Fleischer just before the Libby luncheon meeting and since this was all so unmemeorable that crack reporters Gregory and Dickerson do not seem to have recalled Fleischer telling them either, perhaps when he finally testified about this months later (after having received an immunity grant) he confused what Novak told him and what Libby did.(Fleischer never confirmed the call and we only know it was logged in, not whether Fleischer took it.)