Judge in CIA Leak Case Threatens Gag Order

[cal04]

The federal judge presiding over the pending trial of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby threatened yesterday to impose a gag order barring statements or disclosures to the news media by Libby's defense team or by the special prosecutor investigating alleged wrongdoing by the former White House official.

U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walston did not explain exactly what provoked his pique, but he wrote in his order that "on several occasions information has been distributed to the press by counsel, which has included not only public statements, but also the dissemination of material that had not been filed on the public docket."

He complained that the parties to the case did not heed an earlier warning that he would not tolerate "this case being tried in the media," and he said such disclosures could impair the court's ability "to ensure that both sides receive a fair trial." Walton gave both sides eight days to state any objections before he imposes the gag order.

He made the threat a week after special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald, who is investigating leaks to the media by administration officials about a CIA operative, wrote in a court filing that President Bush and Vice President Cheney had authorized Libby to release information to the media from a classified intelligence report.

more
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/13/AR2006041301687.html

[janx]

1. H20 Man posted a copy of it in GD today...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x924684

[Eugene]

2. Aww! Just when we were getting to the best part.

From the latest filings from Libby's lawyer, I'd say
that Karl Rove and Ari Fleisher have much to explain.

Good call, but what am I going to do with all this popcorn? :popcorn:

[emulatorloo]

3. Yeah, but we call all do without the Barbara Comstock spin

http://dir.salon.com/story/opinion/conason/2005/11/15/libby_defense/index.html

[janx]

4. He's not threatening it, he's doing it!

Can anyone blame him?

[gratuitous]

5. The story is a bit misleading

The judge is honked off in part because of "dissemination of material that has not been filed on the public docket." The judge doesn’t identify who or what provoked the threat of a gag order (which the writer admits), but then the writer goes on to imply a link between the gag order and one of Fitzgerald’s filings.

But . . . that’s not why the judge is threatening a gag order. Material that IS in the court file can be disseminated; it’s part of the public record of the case. The judge is obviously referring to something else besides Fitzgerald’s filing, and it’s dishonest to imply the opposite, as the Washington Post tries to do in this story.

Sloppy writing, sloppy editing. But part and parcel with the Post’s recent apologetics on behalf of the corrupt Bush administration.

[Moderator]

6. kick

[WhiteTara]

7. Judge Threatens to Bar Leak-Case Comments

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/14/washington/14leak.html

By DAVID JOHNSTON
Published: April 14, 2006

WASHINGTON, April 13 — The judge in the C.I.A. leak case against Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff threatened Thursday to issue an order barring the defense and prosecution from speaking publicly about the proceedings.

The judge, Reggie B. Walton of Federal District Court, acted after a prosecutor's court filing was provided to reporters on Tuesday evening before it was officially filed on Wednesday.

Judge Walton reminded lawyers in a written order that he "would not tolerate this case being tried in the media." He directed each side to submit written responses by next Friday explaining why he should not issue an order restricting public statements about the case.
snip
Mr. Libby's lawyers blamed the prosecutors for escalating the case beyond the narrowly drawn charges of false statements that are the core of the indictment in the case. They said prosecutors had opened the door to a broadly based defense when they cited, in a brief last week, actions by Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney allowing disclosure of parts of a 2002 National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq.

In that brief, the prosecutors disclosed testimony by Mr. Libby before the grand jury in which he said that the vice president had told him that Mr. Bush had authorized Mr. Cheney to divulge parts of the intelligence report concluding that Iraq was trying to obtain uranium.

Did Fitz get tired of the games and start leaking himself?

[Up2Late]

8. The judge needs to get a case of this stuff!

<http://www.barsproducts.com/product.cfm?id=17>

Works good?

[goforit]

9. Mr. Walston?...It was tried two years ago and Cheney is guilty!

so there!