Libby lawyers attack witness credibility

[DoYouEverWonder]

Jan 23, 2007

WASHINGTON - Attorneys for former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby say the testimony of the government's first witness in the CIA leak trial may have been improperly influenced.

Marc Grossman, the former No. 3 official at the State Department, took the stand Tuesday and testified that in June 2003 he was the first person to tell Libby that one of the Bush administration's most vocal critics on
Iraq was married to a CIA operative.

<snip>

Foreshadowing a tactic he'll use throughout the case, defense attorney Theodore Wells planned to attack Grossman's credibility. Grossman's memory is spotty and Wells believes his testimony may have been influenced by his former boss at the State Department, Richard Armitage. The night before Grossman spoke to the
FBI, Armitage confessed that he was Novak's original source and was a subject of the investigation.

As Grossman continued to the cooperate in the probe, defense attorneys say, he went back to Armitage and told him what the FBI was asking and discussed his answers. Prosecutors sought to block Wells from inquiring about those conversations but U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton refused.

"It seems to me there might have been some inappropriate behavior taking place," Walton said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070124/ap_on_go_pr_wh/cia_leak_trial

[MADem]

1. Theodore Wells is a helluva litigator, but the bottom line is that Scooter is being bagged for LYING

not for tattling....

[DoYouEverWonder]

2. By the time this trial is over

Libby isn't going to have very many friends left it seems.

Looks like he's turning on everyone except Cheney, to try to save his own ass.

[Demeter]

4. He Didn't Have Any Friends To Begin With; Hence His Trial

[DoYouEverWonder]

5. Well, he use to have a least one friend

Little Miss Run Amuck Judith Miller, but I guess after getting her ass stuck in a real jail, she wouldn't care for him much anymore either.

[Crabby Appleton]

3. Correct

[annabanana]

6. Wells only has one option: bafflement.

I expect that Fitz will be able to keep the water clear, though.

[frylock]

10. watch for him to utilize the chewbacca defense..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chewbacca_Defense

[Olney Blue]

7. Defend the liar by saying others lied. Interesting defense......

[DoYouEverWonder]

8. I love it

I mean if you know you're going to hang, why hang alone?

[JDPriestly]

9. Are we watching a conspiracy unravel?

Only time will tell.

[MADem]

11. It is starting to look like that. It's not dramatic, though, it's coming in on little cat feet

People are too excited about other issues, like the war and the Presidential exploratory committees...it could well be that thing really starts out with a whimper, and ends with a bang.

Time certainly will tell!

[struggle4progress]

12. Witness Testifies He Told Libby About CIA Operative (Correct)

Last Updated: January 24, 2007 20:33 EST
By Cary O'Reilly
(Corrects year to say 2003 in 10th paragraph.)

Jan. 24 (Bloomberg) -- A second ex-government official told jurors he disclosed a CIA operative's identity to former top vice-presidential aide I. Lewis Libby a month earlier than Libby testified he learned about the agent.

Even so, former CIA official Robert Grenier said at Libby's perjury trial that he previously told investigators he wasn't sure whether he told Libby about the agent. He said that he later remembered the events more clearly.

Grenier, a prosecution witness, testified today that he told Libby about CIA operative Valerie Plame on June 11, 2003. Yesterday, ex-State Department official Marc Grossman said he told Libby about Plame on about the same day. Libby is charged with lying to a grand jury when he said he learned about Plame from NBC journalist Tim Russert a month later, on July 10, 2003 ...

The case is U.S. vs. Libby, 05-394, U.S. District Court, the District of Columbia.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aOxQcpcw07uY&refer=us

[struggle4progress]

13. Libby Eager to Reveal CIA Role in Events (Guardian)

Thursday January 25, 2007 12:01 AM
By MICHAEL J. SNIFFEN
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - ... Prosecutors say Libby learned it days earlier from a stream of government officials. Their first witnesses, Marc Grossman, the former No. 3 State Department official, and Grenier both said they told Libby about Plame in early June 2003 ...

Craig Schmall, the CIA official who briefed Libby each morning, testified that Libby likely asked on June 14, 2003, why Wilson was told the Niger trip was at Cheney's behest. Schmall based that a notation he made on that morning's briefing papers: ``Why was the ambassador told this a VP office question?'' Below the note were the names ``Joe Wilson'' and ``Valerie Wilson.''

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6369206,00.html

[DoYouEverWonder]

14. So in other words

Libby lied!

Thanks for the updates.