Bush ''saddened'' by verdict in CIA leak case

Forget about the hundreds of thousand dead in Iraq and Afghanistan. Forget about the thousands still homeless 18 months after Katrina hit NOLA. Bush is "saddened" because one fucking slime ball lobbyists has been convicted of lying to the FBI and perjured himself. Ya gotta love his sense of priorities.

U.S. President George W. Bush was "saddened" by the jury's verdict on Tuesday that Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I Lewis "Scooter" Libby, was guilty in the leak case regarding the identity of Valerie Plame, a former covert agent of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the White House said.

"He said that he respected the jury's verdict, that he was saddened for Scooter Libby and his family," White House Deputy Press Secretary Dana Perino said at a news briefing.

Its really difficult to tell who the bigger slime ball is. Oops, it isn't difficult at all. No one is a larger slime ball than Dim Son.

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Libby found guilty on 4 of 5 counts

Just to be clear on this, I doubt Libby will do any prison time. He lied for the Bush administration and perjured himself to protect it. His loyalty will not go unrewarded, probably by a pardon.

However, if he does do time, it'll undoubtedly be in a facility a huge number of Americans would love to call home. He isn't gonna be breaking rocks with a sledge hammer.

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Libby found innocent

If you don't believe me how about Faux News? Notice the words circled in red.

As a service to my readers

To make the whole Libby trial simpler, even though I don't post about it, this is a photograph of many of the people who leaked Valerie Plane-Wilson's identity to Libby.

I think a couple janitors were involved, but they were unavailable for the photo.

And I should point out none of this has anything to do with whether Libby lied to the grand jury or not.

I don't blog about the Libby trial, but...

This is just too good to pass up.

Former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby is fighting to keep his grand jury testimony about the leak of a CIA operative's name from being released and broadcast in the media.

Libby's grand jury testimony _ the sworn statements he gave to investigators about his conversations with Vice President Dick Cheney and journalists _ is at the heart of his perjury trial. Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald plans to play hours of recordings of that testimony in court next week to bolster his case that Libby lied and obstructed the investigation.

Trial evidence is normally public and all exhibits in Libby's case have been made public so far. Even though Fitzgerald successfully fought to get Libby's full grand jury testimony admitted into evidence, Libby's attorneys say the audiotapes should not be released outside the courtroom.

Libby defense attorney William Jeffress, who successfully argued a Supreme Court case that kept the Watergate tapes from being released, said in court Thursday that grand jury tapes are never meant to be made public.

He said he knew of no case when such recordings have been released. [emphasis mine]

A couple thoughts. The judge would probably not be willing to release the recordings had not the jury been impaneled already. The recordings could influence or prejudice them. But that isn't a problem since the jury has been chosen.

But what could prevent the judge from releasing the recordings is the highlighted sentence. Some judges are averse to setting legal precedent. I have no idea if this judge is one of them.

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Free Scooter Libby!

"If leaks are vital to the freedom of the press, then surely both of the people needed to create a leak—the reporter and the source—deserve protection. If Judy Miller is a martyr of press freedom, then so is Scooter Libby."

-- MICHAEL KINSLEY
TIME Magazine wanker

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