Libby et al
OK, what are the facts about all this?
1) Libby was indicted for charges of perjury, lying to investigators, and obstruction of justice in the pursuit of determing if a crime was committed (and who may have committed it) in outing Valerie Plame.
2) Fitzgerald says the investigation is not yet done.
That's it. Everything else is allegation and innuendo and interpretation of the same.
There's a real temptation to take the statements of fact of the indictments (the first 30 paragraphs) as given and uncontested fact. Yet the truth is they're allegations which will be challenged in court by the defendant. They're probably true, but they're not yet worthy of identification as fact.
There's a real temptation to say that since all Libby was charged with was interfering in the investigation that there was no real (meaning original) crime underlying it all. Yet the truth is that the PURPOSE of perjury and other acts to obstruct justice is to ensure the commissioners of the real/original/more serious crime is allowed to escape justice. I'll interject here to note that some people fear their spouses more than the law - thus some of Clinton's testimony was not to obstruct justice of the law but rather to evade his wife's just ire. But it was still lying, saved from being perjury solely by careful parsing of definitions and gray areas of the law.
I hope the underlying crime can be brought into sufficient clarity that any who participated face justice. I hope it can be brought into sufficient focus as to identify exactly what it was.
Oh, and I believe (part of that interpretation of innuendo and allegation jazz) that there was an underlying crime committed, though it may not be the crime that formed basis of this investigation. Again, people commit perjury and obstruct justice to hide something. Libby did not want something to come to light. I hope we find out what it is and excise it.
1) Libby was indicted for charges of perjury, lying to investigators, and obstruction of justice in the pursuit of determing if a crime was committed (and who may have committed it) in outing Valerie Plame.
2) Fitzgerald says the investigation is not yet done.
That's it. Everything else is allegation and innuendo and interpretation of the same.
There's a real temptation to take the statements of fact of the indictments (the first 30 paragraphs) as given and uncontested fact. Yet the truth is they're allegations which will be challenged in court by the defendant. They're probably true, but they're not yet worthy of identification as fact.
There's a real temptation to say that since all Libby was charged with was interfering in the investigation that there was no real (meaning original) crime underlying it all. Yet the truth is that the PURPOSE of perjury and other acts to obstruct justice is to ensure the commissioners of the real/original/more serious crime is allowed to escape justice. I'll interject here to note that some people fear their spouses more than the law - thus some of Clinton's testimony was not to obstruct justice of the law but rather to evade his wife's just ire. But it was still lying, saved from being perjury solely by careful parsing of definitions and gray areas of the law.
I hope the underlying crime can be brought into sufficient clarity that any who participated face justice. I hope it can be brought into sufficient focus as to identify exactly what it was.
Oh, and I believe (part of that interpretation of innuendo and allegation jazz) that there was an underlying crime committed, though it may not be the crime that formed basis of this investigation. Again, people commit perjury and obstruct justice to hide something. Libby did not want something to come to light. I hope we find out what it is and excise it.
posted by Kirk at 1:32 PM
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