The Ashford Zone Blog

Libby indicted on five counts: (2) perjury, (2) false statement, (1) obstruction of justice.   

Here’s the Libby indictment in case you haven’t already seen it. 

Libby resigns. 

Fitzgerald says the probe is not over.

But it’s clear that Libby himself was the leaker.  Fitzgerald couldn’t indict him, it seems, because Fitzgerald would have to prove that Libby knew the information was classified at the time he leaked it (mes rea for all you law students).  How do you prove what someone knows?  It’s very hard.

That’s all you need to know for now.

Seriously, don’t try to digest this too fast.  Chew everything 20 times before swallowing.  You are going to be hearing a lot about this everywhere for a long time.

UPDATE:  Okay, I lied.  but Kevin Drum has a really succinct "indictment primer", which I share:

INDICTMENT PRIMER….The two false statement charges are these:

• Libby told the FBI that Tim Russert told him about Valerie Plame on July 10 or 11. He also told the FBI that he was surprised to hear this from Russert. This was a lie: Russert never told him this, and Libby knew about Plame’s status long before that in any case.

• Libby told the FBI that he told Matt Cooper on July 12 that reporters had told him about Plame, but Libby didn’t know if it was true. This was a lie: Libby actually confirmed "without qualification" to Cooper that Plame worked for the CIA.

The two perjury charges revolve around the fact that Libby made the same misstatements to the grand jury. The obstruction of justice charge is based on the false statement and perjury charges. Taken together, they amount to obstruction of justice.

Basically, the charges are that Libby consistently tried to mislead both the FBI and the grand jury about how he had learned of Plame’s status. On multiple occasions he told investigators that he had learned about it from reporters in July, but the truth was quite different. In reality, Libby actively sought out information about Joe Wilson’s trip to Niger starting in late May, learned from both State Department and CIA sources in early June that Wilson’s wife worked at the CIA, and received the same information from Dick Cheney shortly after that. Libby subsequently discussed Plame with quite a few people within the White House, at one point admitting to his deputy that "there would be complications at the CIA in disclosing that information publicly," an indication that he knew perfectly well that the CIA didn’t want Plame’s status disclosed. He later told Ari Fleischer that the fact that Joe Wilson’s wife worked at the CIA was "not widely known."

It seems silly to post about indictment rumors today, especially since I’m kind of busy.  So here’s the lowdown — plain and simple.

Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald will hold a press conference at 2 p.m. ET to announce his actions resulting from his investigation of the CIA leak.

NBC News says Fitzgerald "is expected to release some documents in the case around 12 p.m. ET. That information may be posted on his website.

I have nothing more to say until then.

Except this. 

I have a response to the already-developing right-wing talking point that "an indictment is not a conviction". 

And that response is: "Wow.  You are soooooo smart."

UPDATE:  And this stupid talking point:

Libby, apparently, will be indicted for being untruthful during the course of the investigation, not for leaking state secrets.

This is likely to be a case of no crime having been committed until there was an investigation.

You mean like Clinton’s perjury, dickhead?  Oh, wait.  I forgot Rule # 1: IOKIYAR.

Because convicts make crappy boyfriends, I guess:

[S]everal Texas political insiders say Rove’s longtime relationship with lobbyist Karen Johnson may be in jeopardy, too, if Johnson’s relatives have their way.

In July we reported on the very close relationship Johnson, a single, Austin-based lobbyist, has enjoyed with Rove since they met over a decade ago in Texas. But now that Rove’s White House tenure is looking increasingly shaky, friends are whispering that the forty-something lobbyist—who pulls in well over $1 million a year thanks to her administration connections—may be cooling toward the married presidential advisor.