
Welcome to the Libby Liveblog. Some housekeeping rules: This is not a transcript, nor am I a court reporter. Please exercise restraint in refreshing the post. And buy my book.
F Focus on June 23
M My focus on those issues, watching soldiers being frustrated. How had this gotten so screwed up. The big picture. Mr Libby being in Washignton seemed much more focused on growing controversy over SOTU. And who said what to whom, inside baseball. And so from my standpoint it wasn't very productive.
F Your focus and his focus on July 8
M A broader story on how hunt had been so badly carried out and what had happened to underlying intell, Mr Libby seemed to want to focus on yellowcake. My focus was Bioweapons. This he said she said struck me was Washington politics not particularly relevant to issues I cared about.
F I need to approach before last question.
Judy and Jury gone
Fitz I don't know if you have a copy of this
Walton, I do, I just need to look at it real quick
Fitz This issue has come up from time to time: Aspens letter, it has been my view that is relevant I do think that cross sought to portray waivers at all time. What's of particular note here is the paragraph relating to waivers. Why, bc as "I am sure will not be news to you"
[Fitz is trying to enter Aspen letter into testimony, but not the weird Aspens paragraph.]
Fitz Mr Libby's testimony was that he had not told Judy that, but in this letter he said the others had not said he knew it, and how he expected her testimony to help them. We had testimony elicited by Jeffress on Armitage and Grossman talking.
Walton How would it be relevant to her testimony.
F She would authenticate it
Walton Are you just going to seek to have her authenticate it. I'm having some issue as to how the content of the letter would be relevant to her testimony. Ultimately it might be relevant if Libby testifies. I don't understand how the content will be relevant to what she has said.
F If the defense will stipulate to the authenticity.
Walton any challenge to authenticity
F Mr Jeffress asked Miller if Libby called I think this completes the picture. And followed up with a letter. So I think that makes this letter relevant
Walton I guess I'm missing how it makes it relevant. If you're suggesting there was collusion and that this letter was designed to affect what she would say and that it DID affect what she said. She did not testify in such a way that
F We don't think the letter worked.
F they jury's been told that he willingly let her testify.
Walton It's another issue we'll have to address. I don't agree that it's relevant since the letter didn't cause her to alter her testimony. The question of its admissibility does it suggest consciousness of guilt if it says he was saying she should testify in that way.
F It's not critical that it should come through this witness.
Walton we can address that at some point. I don't think it's relevant to her testimony.
J Let me just make a record--did you read his letter as an instruction to make her testimony consistent with the way others said.
Walton, I don't think that dictates the admissibility of the letter. I think it suggests he was trying to get her to say something inconsistent with what he believes she was going to say, if he was suggesting she should say something different, conceivably it might have relevance to his consciousness of guilt.
11:40
Jeffress trying to get the rest of the notes from Fitz, saying there are other references
Walton Mr Bennett—is there anything in there.
Bennett—no your honor, we gave you everything, and you judged they got what was relevant
Walton asks F about them
F I'm in the same position Jeffress is. Court has seen them, and there are no other references to the wife
Walton I need to reassure myself that there was nothing relevant. I need to look at them again. She'll have to remain available. We have the notes. She'll have to remain available.
Jeffress, I'd offer into evidence the video I played.
F Only available as impeachment.
Walton, If we were talking about prior inconsistent statement, the statement would come in for impeachment. An actual video tape, under those circumstance, it too can come in.
F I don't believe that it's inconsistent.
W It would have to be inconsistent
F I don't believe they were inconsistent, just entering them doesn't make them inconsistent.
W I did perceive it as at least being inconsistent.
J We can brief it later. I think I laid the foundation for inconsistency.
W My recollection was that there was a level of inconsistency.
11:59 back from break
They're in sidebar discussing the juror questions.
We're still in sidebar, at 12:04
Juror questions, offered by Walton
Walton Why didn't you or attorney contact Libby earlier.
M BC I was afraid of fishing expedition. It was only after I had both things.
Walton If you had had his personal waiver immediately, would you have testified
M I still needed agreement that it would be this one source on this subject. As soon as I got both, I went to testify.
Walton. Why did you make decision to go to jail.
M BC all of my reporting depended on my ability to protect sources. Until I had something written from Libby, not something his boss asked him to sign, I felt that as a professional matter, it was all I could do. I wasn't trying to be a martyr. You can't operate that way in DC, it was too important in national security reporting.
Walton Have you ever had memory losses like the memory loss you said you had with LIbby.
M When I was preparing my last book, there was an incident. I went back and found out the story was very different. I'd actually misremembered it. From taht time, I've been careful about notes, trying to be careful.
Walton Did you make agreement with Libby regarding sharing of info that might be a quid pro quo.
M No, only the way in which he was to be identified. There was no quid pro quo.
Walton. The notes that you found after you were asked to look for notes. Where did yo locate those.
M Right under my desk at NYT in shopping bag.
Walton IS that where you kept your notes.
M That's where I kept notes for a relevant period of time before I went to jail.
Walton is taht your standard method of archiving.
M I meant to archive them. I assumed I'd have time to take the notebooks home for safekeeping. That's why they were there. But the marshalls took me away right away.
Walton how many other notebooks.
M About 15 or 20.
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fitz
Kazuza
hey - my toobz unclogged!
empty wheel!
Big problems loading…1st time back since. Is this like a ZED?
Good luck pups!
FDL server musta been down for a while.
We’re back!
Oh thank goodness. And thanks to kos for hosting Marcy during this last half hour.
Happy birthday to Bustednuckles!
OK, you can start the trial again Reggie.
Anatomy of Deceit:
Amazon.com Sales Rank: #570 in Books
Let’s get it down to 200, possibly 100 today, fellas.
Server — overloaded? DOS attack?
OT but did anyone else catch the following quote from Biden from the NYO:
“Mr. Biden is equally skeptical—albeit in a slightly more backhanded way—about Mr. Obama. ‘I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy,’ he said. ‘I mean, that’s a storybook, man.’”
yeah, man. joe’s down…
Bustednuckles @ 7
Oh thank goodness. I thought for a second there that the Malkkkin-ites had taken their war to the internets and FDL was the first casualty.
Thanks Egregious!
47 today.
FITZ!
Oh THANK YOU, JEZZUS - really, I mean it!
direct link to .pdf of letter from Scooter to Judy
hang ten @ 12
Seriously - what an idiot. Webb for President.
Hmm. Maybe the movie version should be called The Aspen Papers.
New visitors to FDL liveblog of Libby Trial, please read
The liveblogging is creating enormous demands on the FDL servers. For that reason, Marcy is updating only every 15 minutes or so, and timestamping each update. Please do not “reload” the page more frequently than that. Also please be judicious in your use of comments ), and how often you refresh them, to reduce demands on the servers.
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Peterr @ 8 said
A few reminders to the regulars and words of welcome to newcomers. .
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Thanx
never mind - edited out
Thanks, Paul!
Miller: “Mr Libby being in Washington seemed much more focused on growing controversy over SOTU. And who said what to whom, inside baseball.”
ouch. Just another example of how preoccupied Libby was with Wilson/Plame and how implausible it is that he would forget all about it.
Yes, we had a server problem. We’ll back up the liveblogging when we gettime. The court is at lunch. Fresh thread coming up sortly.
Did anyone happen to locate the infamous ‘Paragraph 5′?
Just got up….spent 30 minutes being forced to read other sites! Stayed up too late reading - butt is numb and FLAT.
Off to make coffee. No one move! I hit the pause button.
Whew! ‘fraid jr. had pulled a real “Frank Burns” on his’n tractor escapade taday.
thank heaven yer up & runnin’ again!
http://www.talk.newsweek.com/d.....tem=464251
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Burns
Out West, where you vacation, the aspens will already be turning. They’re in clusters, because their roots connect them. Come back to work—-and life.
This paragraph? This is the best part.
Happy Birthday Bustednuckles!
Great to see everythings rolling again. Matt cooper is up right now so far it’s good. Have fun in prison Scooter you piece of shit.
those who missed it, the Kos thread(the alternate parallel universe) is here.
I’m having trouble loading as well. No trouble prior to this am. I had a thought about why Judy can’t remember who told her about Plame. Maybe because she heard about Plame way before Libby. I was just reading an article on prisonplanet about US fostering chaos in Iraq by having rogue pilots shoot up Brit soldiers and just got a thought that hit me like a diamond bullet.
The whole Wilson-Plame WMD leak etc was a set up from the get go. Asking the CIA to verify yellow cake, knowing they would send Wilson, knowing they could leak Plame’s identity (lucky strike extra–payback for Halliburton bust in 90s), knowing that would destroy credibility and contacts in NPD, all to get to Iran and generate even more chaos in ME.
I am now sick to my stomach.
Are they that smart (smart in an evil, cunning way, not in an admirable way)? Am I giving them too much credit?
RevDeb 28 THANKS!
EPU - a failed one. I wrote a comment on the last thread that got swallowed on the way to “the tube” and never got posted.
Someone there mentioned s/he thought Judyjudy knew Valerie before this whole thing and that the name “flame” in her notebook may have been a form of snark.
I’ve been thinking for a long time that they must have known one another. D.C. is not that big. Valerie’s cover was M.E. oil and she traveled to the region; Judy was keenly interested in the ME & also traveled there abouts. There are not that many people with this type of experience. The name “flame” to me sounds like Judy’s school girl label for someone she had in her eye sight, someone indeed who indeed perhaps was a “flame” of a certain someone she herself was interested in (the ambassador). Judyjudy was pretty notorious for her trysts in the day.
But this name also on another level may reveal another equally notable side of Judyjudy’s endeavor (and one that she was also keenly cognisant of) i.e. that the Plame-Wilson issue before her was largely about “fanning the flames of war.” (i.e. pushing to get the US to invade Iraq).
707 http://www.crooksandliars.com/.....bby-trial/ 707
firedogs,
checking in from work - help help help
ke-board being dumb - some charac-ers no work
magic code will unlock - no/si - all upper case and 2 char no work
Lou Costello @ 32
Saw that last night and loved it. Glad John posted it (I sent an e-mail asking, pretty please)
At last the trial again. My left retina detached last thursday..surgery etc. no FDL for a week..I was going nuts..now back in business
What’s all this talk about Judy Miller being a squid pro ho? - Emily Litella
Someone there mentioned s/he thought Judyjudy knew Valerie before this whole thing and that the name “flame” in her notebook may have been a form of snark.
Yeah I said in the last thread it definitely sounds snarky or catty, “flame.”
Required reading over lunch via Kos: “Inconvenient Truth: Why Plame Had to Go.” Absolutely, no one will be let back into this classroom after break, until you have read this, or you will be sent back home!!! :-}
http://www.dailykos.com/storyo.....135851/077
RevDeb @ 28
The Kos thread is up here now. (Thanks, Markos for allowing the immigration. *g*)
Steve @ 35
Was wondering where you were. Sorry to hear the bad news and hope the recovery is as comfortable as possible. Does it hurt to read?
A semi local side note..The snow started here about an hour ago. It’s so beautiful with bald eagles pearched just outside my window.
Yo, BustedKnuckles!
Happy Birfday!
Perhaps someone has mentioned this before, if so I missed it - with apologies.
When Miller testified that Libby was frustrated, unhappy, and irritated about the CIA not clarifying, I wonder if that show of emotion was genuine? Or was he he was simply acting the part - in order to preserve the ruse and not make himself lose his credibility to Judy.
Rereading the Aspen letter the following jumps out at me:
“your reporting and you are missed”
“the person you seek to protect” gives waiver: Libby
“I remain today just as interested as I was over a year ago” Interested????
I thought she said she went to jail to protect her principle about revealing a source. Clearly, he is implying she went to jail to protect him personally.
Is it just me?
Help me here
How do you see the timestamp without refreshing? Also, I realize this may be counter to the spirit of the Lake but (and I’m guiltier than most) how about people being asked to only post things that have some meaning during the live blog. All this whoo hoo stuff adds nothing to the conversation!
p.lukasiak @ 19
Hear Hear for FDL. Sent them a chunk of change the other day. Told them to use the $$$ for wherever they felt money most needed. I felt good about helping them out in exchange for all the groundbreaking work they are doing on this trial.
Their efforts will be part of the historical record of this Administration.
If that isn’t worth a few sheckels, what is???!!!
This was a question from a juror, being read by the judge:
That was a real laugh out loud moment.
Now that it is lunchtime, may I inquire why the jury duty discussion was so frowned on in the last thread? I thought it was interesting.
If Christy or Jane want to rule out all comments that are not specifically about the Libby trial, to save bandwidth, I would understand. They are the site owners.
But why the heavy censorious comments from members? Jury duty isn’t off-topic here. I can’t see that the subject is any more diversionary or bandwith-hogging than the fitz! posts and current Amazon rankings and other truly OT happenings of the day that people can get from other websites while they are waiting to refresh.
Get your Judy Miller filing system today! $0.05 for paper, 0.10 for plastic. Limited time offer, don’t wait!!
To me, it seemed like the topic had been exhausted. . .but that’s just me.
demit @
47
I’m still stuck on the shopping bag/notebooks angle. Ya think judyjudyjudy could-a been hoping someone would mistake it for her brandnew faragamoes mukluks & make off with all dat evidence, eh?
demit — I have asked people repeatedly to be judicious in commenting because we are getting hammered on server and bandwidth issues right now. Traffic is great, interest is fantastic, but we are trying to balance the need for discussion against a desire to keep the site up and running and — as everyone plainly saw the last few minutes — sometimes a big, fat discussion of something somewhat off-topic in a thread that is already getting a lot of traffic can cause a site crash.
That’s why.
And, btw gang, I’ve put up an amusing lunchtime thread here to tide everyone over until Cooper is back on the stand following the lunch break.
cloud7 @ 48
But WAIT! If you act RIGHT NOW, I’ll send you an extra set absolutely FREE! Our operators are waiting!
Office of Vice President document production materials has some interesting tidbits in the ask letters - on page 4/5.
Christy Hardin Smith @
52
I’ve updated this main post and the front page. All the remaining Miller and Cooper stuff Marcy had to plug in at Dkos during our site hiccup is now back here at FDL. Just refresh this page and also check the front page for Cooper.
Richmond @ 38
Unfuckingbelievable! But fucking believable too.
I see Cate Blanchett playing Valerie.
Brad Pitt as Joe.
Hey wait, that’s “Babel.”
Thank you, Christy. I have seen your (and Marcy’s) repeated requests to be judicious in commenting. I also see people blithely ignoring them, with completely off-topic posts & links, and happy birthdays and whatnot, and not being overtly reprimanded the way the jury-duty posters were. I confess I don’t understand the fine line that exists there.
demit @ 57
It was an important subject, but it could have waited for lunch - and perhaps a whole post at some point.
Richmond @ 38
Read it. Hard these days to get any more disgusted with this Bushco gang of crooks. But this article does raise the bar yet again. Suggest everyone read it. If not new info to the reader, it might - as Judy might say - refresh your recollection!.
May I come back in now?
May I come back in now?
It took me about 3 minutes to figure out you were talking to me! I was thinking, what did you say that got CHS P.O.’d. “g” - of course!!
Server performance comment from a former IT system admin:
In my experience charting server performance for a Fortune 100 company, there are two key times of the day when people hammer servers by placing high demand on the systems.
- First thing in the morning when they get into work and they check their email and schedules;
- LUNCH TIME, when they surf away at their desks, particularly during winter months (not taking a break outside, in other words).
For future reference, take note that if testimony runs past 12:00 pm EST during the course of this trial, users can reasonably expect a surge of users checking FireDogLake’s live blogging posts.
Please keep commenting and refreshing to a minimum, with comments as close to topic as possible. (Yes, I know, I should mind my own P’s & Q’s, but I used to be one of those techie ghosts-in-the-machine that users would call and b*tch at when they couldn’t surf at lunch or get their email because the servers were swamped. Take pity on the techies and the other users.)
Please also keep in mind that with heavy demand during lunch hour, that a Denial-of-Service attack by hostile party/ies will more easily overtask the system. Read between the lines here and give as much understanding and patience as possible. Thanks much from a fellow FDL fan.
“Have you ever had memory loss like the memory loss you said you had with Libby?”
and if she remembers ‘yes’….(???)
Question for upper echelon fdl’ers: Would it make sense to have two posts up during the live blogging. 1) with Marcy (and no comments allowed, except by her or CHS perhaps), the other for commentary. That way, we would not have both live blog “refreshing” and post “refreshing” at the same time. That would work on lap tops (you could move between windows), but maybe not so well for IPAs.
Richmond @ 63: “Would it make sense to have two posts up during the live blogging. 1) with Marcy (and no comments allowed, except by her or CHS perhaps), the other for commentary. That way, we would not have both live blog “refreshing” and post “refreshing” at the same time.”
You’d end up with people jumping back and forth between the posts. It’s a “six of one, half dozen of the other” situation, except that you would probably increase the number of hits without significantly reducing the response bandwidth.
Best to leave it as is, in my 15 years of experience techie opinion.
Thanks Jgabriel!
We shouldn’t believe a single work that comes out of Judy Miller’s mouth.
Fitzmas @
36
Absolutely classic!!!!!!!!!!
When Judy said
I thought in the rest of that sentence she also said in regard to the soldiers “frustrated looking for wmd”