Hours after Senator Clinton dropped out of the race, and the news cycle was swamped with never-ending coverage of the inevitable doing the inevitable something was released under the radar.

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Novak had a question and answer period with regular joe shmoes via IM yesterday at WaPo and there was some quite interesting exchanges:

Floris, Va.: Here’s what I’ve never understood about the Valerie
Plame Wilson issue. Most reporters don’t print information without
having at least two sources. Did you have more than one source
regarding Mrs. Wilson’s CIA status before you published the information
in your column?

Robert D. Novak: You must not have followed the case very
closely to ask that question. I have answered it in my columns, in my
memoir and in many TV and radio interviews. My three sources were
Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, presidential aide Karl Rove
and CIA spokesman Bill Harlow.

Chambersburg, Pa.: Do you think that Joseph Wilson’s information
about yellow cake from Niger was correct? Did he do the job that he was
asked to do?

Robert D. Novak: Pretty poor job, as the material released now
indicates. Based on his report, you could not definitely Iraq was not
seeking yellowcake uranium.

Kennett, Mo.: How do you rationalize the Bush administration’s
need for secrecy and the way the administration used you to out Ms.
Plame? The end justifies the needs.

Robert D. Novak: I was not used. The information was given me by
Deputy Secretary of State Armitage, who was out of phase with the White
and, like me, a critic of the Iraqi intervention.

San Francisco: Isn’t it true, though, that CIA spokesperson
Bryce Harlow asked you twice not to publish Valerie Plame’s name? How
can this request from a U.S. intelligence agency to a presumably
patriotic American be construed to make him a “source”?

Robert D. Novak: Bill Harlow, not Bryce Harlow.

He confirmed to me that she worked for the CIA in the Counter-Proliferation Division.

Denver: Have you rethought the admiration you expressed for
Ambassador Joseph Wilson in the column that he still claims ruined his
wife’s life?

Robert D. Novak: Yes, I was much too kind to him.

Minneapolis: I found your book very entertaining reading. Since
you finished writing it, it has been disclosed publicly by the
government both that Valerie Wilson was a covert employee by the CIA’s
own standards, and that investigators determined early on that she was
in fact a “covert agent” covered by the Intelligence Identities
Protection Act — in part because, contrary to what you say in your
book, she indeed had performed missions abroad undercover in the period
immediately preceding the public blowing of her cover in your column.
She was not, as you assert in your book, a desk-bound analyst at CIA
headquarters. (And by the way, it is investigators’ and prosecutors’
responsibility, not the CIA’s, to determine whether Wilson was covered
by the IIPA legislation.) How does that change your view of the case
and of your own role in it? Have you revised your view of whether what
you did was regrettable?

Robert D. Novak: Special Counsel had three years (and millions
of dollars) to determine whether anybody violated the IIPA. Of course,
nobody did.

Also, do you take seriously the claim that a person driving her car
every day from her home to CIA headquarters at Langley was a covert
agent?

I love that last one.  The left is constantly trying to bring up the fact that the CIA considered the desk-jockey “covert” and is covered by IIPC.  Only problem with that is then there would have been some criminal charges filed against the person who leaked the name right? 

Cough….Armitage…..cough….

Common sense right?

Alas, we all know who lacks common sense in this debate.

Tom Maguire with some thoughts:

If I had availed myself of the opportunity to brighten the Prince of
Darkness’s day, I would have asked him whether he had followed up on
the question of Ms. Plame’s covert status with Rep. Hoekstra.  When last we looked, the CIA Counsel was still unclear as to her status, but that was many months ago.

And if I had a follow-up, I would query him about Ms. Plame’s pension situation
- her pension gets increased based on service abroad and the CIA has a
formal record of what they consider (by their guidelines, which may not
fully overlap with the intent of the Intelligence Identities Protection
Act) to be the dates of her service abroad, so my question would be,
has Novak talked to Hoekstra or anyone else about just what the CIA
considers to be her official dates of service abroad?

And that, BTW, is my response to Jeff  - it may well be the case
that in the first wave of investigation the FBI took for granted that
Ms. Plame was “covert” as defined by the IIPA; however, the only time
that Fitzgerald actually asserted that was in the sentencing phase
after the case had gone to verdict and after the defense had forgone
their opportunity to challenge that point.  My view - Fitzgerald
clearly ducked the point about her pension dates of service, which he
would not have done had they gone in his favor.

In the end it doesn’t matter to the left in this country that this lady was not covert, that she was just a desk-jockey doing her best to bring down our President with lies.  The duo lied about who sent Joe to Niger, he lied when he wrote that the rumors about yellow-cake were not real when in fact he told the CIA he could not debunk the rumors.

So sure, there were plenty of lies to go around on this story.  The biggest being that these two were just some innocent Washington insiders wanting to do the “right thing.”  

Here is Robert Novak on Hannity & Colmes today getting a bit snippy with Colmes about the McClellan deal seeing as how the leak never came from The President, the Vice-President, Rove, or Libby:

Isn’t it curious how the left constantly wailed about Scott McClellan allegedly lying during his press conferences, but now that he is saying something that smells like trash talk about Bush, he is suddenly a truth teller.

Funny, funny stuff.

Whats the trash talk?  Well, he writes a tell-all book and wanting to ensure it will sell millions he releases a few sentences that he knew would get the left drooling in anticipation.

Former White House press secretary Scott McClellan blames President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for efforts to mislead the public about the role of White House aides in leaking the identity of a CIA operative.

In an excerpt from his forthcoming book, McClellan recount the 2003 news conference in which he told reporters that aides Karl Rove and I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby were “not involved” in the leak involving operative Valerie Plame.

“There was one problem. It was not true,” McClellan writes, according to a brief excerpt released Monday. “I had unknowingly passed along false information. And five of the highest-ranking officials in the administration were involved in my doing so: Rove, Libby, the vice president, the president’s chief of staff and the president himself.”

And do they ever drool.  Olbermann and Matthews almost orgasmed on camera. 

But I have a question for Scott.  Are you telling me that you lied last March?

KING: Scott, were you lied to?

MCCLELLAN: Well, Larry, I said what I believed to be true at the time. It was also what the president believed to be true at the time based on assurances that we were both given.

Or are you just trying to sell books?

I’m betting the latter.

UPDATE

Jeff Gannon with some interesting facts:

Later in the same interview, McClellan responded to the allegation that the White House sought to gain from ‘outing’ Valerie Plame:

Well, Larry, remember that the person was the one who was the original or primary source for Robert Novak, the column that started this whole investigation really was Dick Armitage, who was the deputy secretary of State, not really a proponent of the Iraq war. And it was certainly not a partisan gun-slinger as Robert Novak said in his article or said later in an interview. In terms of any other involvement beyond that, what came out in this trial is what I learned for the first time. So I don’t know of any effort beyond what we have seen in this trial come out in the media that was going on. I think one of the questions that this gets to is, was the administration trying to discredit or retaliate against a critic? I would say that the administration was trying to set the record straight. Whether or not people were involved in leaking someone’s name and that name was classified, that’s a different matter. I don’t know anything about that.

McClellan indicated that his entire knowledge of the ‘outing’ of Valerie Plame from both his personal knowledge and the public record was complete at this point, yet did not make any claim that high-ranking officials sent him out to “pass false information” about it. McClellan’s meaning in the book excerpt is murky at best and does not necessarily contradict the definitive statements he made to Larry King.

UPDATE II

Just as we figured, it was all a ploy to sell more books:

Former White House spokesman Scott McClellan does not believe President Bush lied to him about the role of White House aides I. Lewis Scooter Libby or Karl Rove in the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame’s identity, according to McClellan’s publisher.

Peter Osnos, the founder and editor-in-chief of Public Affairs Books, which is publishing McClellan’s book in April, tells NBC from his Connecticut home that McCLellan, “Did not intend to suggest Bush lied to him.”

Osnos says when McClellan went before the White House press corps in 2003 to publicly exonerate Libby and Rove, the problem was that his statement was not true. Osnos said the president told McClellan what “he thought to be the case.” But, he says, McClellan believes, “the president didn’t know it was not true.”
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Osnos says the quotes which appeared on the Public Affairs Books website were part of the roll out of the book catalogues for the spring printings. And he says McClellan had not finished the manuscript for the memoir yet and was working under deadline to have the book completed for the April publishing.

Olby and Chrissy are no doubt inconsolable now.

You can bet this guy:

Is having a huge conniption fit right about now with this news:

Former CIA operative Valerie Plame lost a lawsuit Thursday that demanded money from Bush administration officials whom she blamed for leaking her agency identity.

Plame, the wife of former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, had accused Vice President Dick Cheney and others of conspiring to disclose her identity in 2003. Plame said that violated her privacy rights and was illegal retribution for her husband’s criticism of the administration.

U.S. District Judge John D. Bates dismissed the case on jurisdictional grounds and said he would not express an opinion on the constitutional arguments.

Poor Chrissy, he’s going to blow a gasket after the news his good pals lost another round.  First they fail to bring down the 2004 election, then they fail to get Rove or Cheney indicted, and now they lose their silly ignorant lawsuit.  Not a good run for these treasonous rats huh?

Oh, and take a look at that bolded part in the AP’s article.  They are alleging that the Judge threw it out on jurisdictional grounds which is quite plainly disputed in the actual opinion on page 41: (h/t Hot Air)

For the reasons given above, plaintiffs have failed to state a claim upon which relief can be granted with respect to their four causes of action asserted directly under the Constitution. Furthermore, this Court lacks subject-matter jurisdiction over plaintiffs’ claim for public disclosure of private facts.

Mighty slimy of the AP to get the story wrong huh?  I’m sure it was just an accident….

My favorite part of the opinion is the one with the most common sense explanation:

[D]efendants chose to rebut Mr. Wilson’s comments and attack his credibility may have been highly unsavory. But there can be no serious dispute that the act of rebutting public criticism, such as that levied by Mr. Wilson against the Bush Administration’s handling of prewar foreign intelligence, by speaking with members of the press is within the scope of defendants’ duties as high-level Executive Branch officials.

Your damn right it’s within their duties, hell….it’s something that MUST be done when a man with a anti-war, anti-Bush agenda is sent to Niger by his rabid anti-Bush wife to investigate that "crazy report" about Saddam trying to acquire Uranium and then comes back and lies about what he discovers to bring down a President.

Valerie Plame recommended him for the job (and then lied about doing it), Joe Wilson comes back and tells the CIA something completely different then what he writes about in Vanity Fair, then he lies about who really sent him and then when caught in all his lies he and his desk-jockey wife become victims.

Sound like the typical Democrat family to you?  A Victocrat as Larry Elder likes to call them.

No, what this Judge did today is what all judges should do.  Namely rule with some common sense.

Of course we all know the KOSKiddies and DummiesU alumni will go batty over the fact that the Judge is a Bush appointee….they have yet to find a conspiracy they don’t love.

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Bush’s press conference was excellent, a excellent excellent job.  Some snippets in this 5 minute video from Amy Proctor:

Reporter: Have you entertained the idea that Congress might take your sole decision-making power away?

I don’t think Congress ought to be running the war. I think they ought to be funding the troops. Trying to run the war through legislation is a prescription for failure…Congress has all the right in the world to fund. that’s their main involvement in this war. Troop strength? Position? I don’t think that would be good for the country.

Damn right it wouldn’t be good, and unconstitutional.

Meanwhile Bush was thrown this Libby question and he comes back with an answer many of us have answered questions such as these with:

The Democrats are in full head exploding mode after todays news that a pardon for Libby may still be forthcoming:

Democratic presidential contender Hillary Rodham Clinton drew a distinction between President Bush’s decision to commute the sentence of White House aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby - which she has harshly criticized - and her husband’s 140 pardons in his closing hours in office.

“I believe that presidential pardon authority is available to any president, and almost all presidents have exercised it,” Clinton said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. “This (the Libby decision) was clearly an effort to protect the White House. … There isn’t any doubt now, what we know is that Libby was carrying out the implicit or explicit wishes of the vice president, or maybe the president as well, in the further effort to stifle dissent.”

Libby, a former chief of staff for Vice President Dick Cheney, had been sentenced to 30 months in prison as well as two years’ probation and a $250,000 fine for perjury in connection with the leaking of CIA agent Valerie Plane’s name to reporters.

Just hours after a federal appeals court rejected Libby’s appeal, Bush announced his decision to commute the prison term portion of the sentence, which he labeled excessive.

As she campaigns with her husband for Iowa’s leadoff precinct caucuses, Clinton has joined other Democrats in ripping Bush’s decision. In the interview, she said it was “one more example” of the Bush administration thinking “it is above the rule of law.”

Her husband’s pardons, issued in the closing hours of his presidency, were simply routine exercise in the use of the pardon power, and none were aimed at protecting the Clinton presidency or legacy, she said.

Protecting the Bush Presidency?  From what?  Apparently from the man who was railroaded because he forgot some dates.  Nevermind that the Special Prosecutor found nothing to charge anyone with regarding the Plame idiocy.  No, Libby going to jail would somehow harm Bush.

Of course we know the legacy of the Clinton’s quite well and if anyone should be worried, it’s these two hacks.

The real Bill Clinton pardoned two of the biggest tax cheats in United States history who had renounced their citizenship and had traded with the Iranians during the hostage crisis, all because Marc Rich’s daughter gave a million bucks to the Democrat party and gave plenty to the Clinton campaign.  He commuted the sentences of 14 convicted terrorists.  He pardoned Rick Hendrick, who was convicted of mail fraud in 1997, once his good friend Hugh McColl, CEO of Bank of America at the time, pleaded for a pardon and gave $500,000 to the Clinton Foundation.  In fact it took exactly 14 days from the day the check was delivered until Rick was a free man.   Or how about the Drug kingpin who made millions transporting Cocaine and other various drugs across the border, Mr. Carlos Vignali.  The man who was represented by Bill Clinton’s brother-in-law, who gave money to the Democrat party and incidently enough gave plenty of cash to our current Mayor in Los Angeles Antonio Villaraigosa.  He served 6 years of a 15 year sentence and was set free by Clinton.

Hell, it was just a few months ago that the Gregory case reared it’s ugly head again:

A court-appointed bankruptcy trustee asked a federal judge this week to schedule a new court date in a case against Tony Rodham, the brother of Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., accused of failing to repay $109,000 in loans from a carnival company whose owners received controversial pardons issued by President Bill Clinton in the last hours of his presidency.

According to documents filed in the case, Rodham received the loans, before and after the pardons were granted, from United Shows of America, Inc., owned by Edgar Gregory and his wife, who had been convicted of defrauding several banks.

A congressional report by the Republican-controlled House Reform Committee concluded Rodham "had tried to sell his access to the White House" and that "but for Tony Rodham’s lobbying efforts, the Gregory pardons would not have been granted."

The Clinton Presidency was for sale to the highest bidder.  If anything can ruin the legacy of a President that fact would be one of them.

Let see, Libby forgets some dates while Bill forgot about a BJ…..which one is more plausible?

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Nice!

President Bush spared former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby from a 2 1/2-year prison term in the CIA leak case Monday, stepping into a criminal case with heavy political overtones on grounds that the sentence was just too harsh.

Bush’s move came hours after a federal appeals panel ruled Libby could not delay his prison term in the CIA leak case. That meant Libby was likely to have to report to prison soon and put new pressure on the president, who had been sidestepping calls by Libby’s allies to pardon the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney.

"I respect the jury’s verdict," Bush said in a statement. "But I have concluded that the prison sentence given to Mr. Libby is excessive. Therefore, I am commuting the portion of Mr. Libby’s sentence that required him to spend thirty months in prison."

Grab some popcorn people and watch heads explode across our liberal MSM tv channels.  Going to be some fun tonight!

This is just outstanding.  Lets recap, a case about the outing of a CIA deskjockey who sent her husband off with the sole purpose of harming the President’s policy became a perjury case against a Cheney aide.  Perjury not even related to the outing mind you since everyone now knows who did in fact out her….cough Armitage cough….but no matter.  Libby gets some dates wrong and BAM!  Lets send him to prison for 3 years.  This case was a political railroad job from the beginning so why shouldn’t more politics be brought into it?

It’s not like Clinton ever pardoned terrorists right?

Just last week, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, speaking on the first anniversary of the deadly U.S. embassy bombings in Africa, vowed to wage an all-out war against terrorism. This week, President Clinton turned that promise into a joke by offering to commute the justifiably harsh prison sentences of 14 FALN terrorists, including the wife of its bomb-maker mastermind, the notorious William Morales.

He offered and then did in fact commute their sentences.

So we should feel bad because this good man was commuted.  I don’t think so.

I can hear it already….the popping noise of heads exploding from the CNN office in New York…..Yippeee!

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Anyone who has followed the Libby trial cannot be surprised by the Judge’s ruling today.  Judge Walton has been anything but unbiased and I fully expected him to deny Libby’s motion to be allowed free pending appeal. 

A federal judge ordered Vice President Cheney’s former chief of staff to surrender in six to eight weeks to begin serving his 30-month prison term, increasing the pressure for President Bush to decide soon whether he will pardon the only administration official prosecuted in a White House leak investigation.

U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton said both the law and his own sense of fairness required that he reject I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby’s request to remain free while appealing his conviction for perjury and obstruction of the leak investigation, an approach that could have deferred the pardon question for years.

Walton said his decision was based on what he considers to be the slight chance Libby will succeed in having his conviction overturned, and his belief that the court cannot have one set of standards for well-connected, white-collar criminals and another for the remaining criminals also about to lose their freedom.

"Clearly, under the statute, I’m required to detain him," Walton said before delivering his decision. "And I just think blue-collar criminals are entitled to the same kind of justice as white-collar criminals."

Libby remained stoic as Walton announced his decision, while Libby’s wife, Harriet Grant, wiped away tears. Two of his attorneys, who had seemed resigned to getting bad news throughout the two-hour hearing, shook their heads ruefully. They later vowed to file an emergency appeal to seek a delay in Libby’s reporting to prison.

JustOneMinute put up an interesting transcript of these proceedings:

Robbins (for Libby): …The question here is whether these are close questions. I don’t think it can be debated that these are close, and I think we’ll win.

When someone does not have to report to anyone, does not have to follow DOJ procedures, sometimes things go wrong. Under section 6c2 under ______ the AG is allowed to object to disclosure of classified information, if disclosure would damage national security. Fitzgerald did submit such a report because he assumed plenary authority.

Walton: but the CIPA issues did not arise until later when Libby asked for material.

Robbins: But this is an example of how things go wrong when authority is too broadly delegated. [Reads the language of the act, congressional statute]. Authority to AG, DAG, AAG. These are the ones who can make these disclosures, and no one else.

Walton: Be that as it may, your client through his counsel did not submit his request to Mr. Fitzgerald, their CIPA request, not to others. This issue was not raised at the time. Was this issue waived?

Robbins: My understanding is this document was declassified and made public after the case. I was not part of the history of this case. But Lawrence Walsh was denied this authority in the past.

Walton: I think your co-counsel did not address this.

Jeffress: This affidavit was submitted in camera. It has recently under seal, and we obtained it pursuant to your ruling, we received it in May.

Walton: Your time is up.

So if I’m reading this correctly Fitzgerald signed an affidavit for which he had no authority to sign.  When the Judge asked the defense team why they didn’t bring it up sooner they answered that the documents had not been unsealed until it was too late.  This whole thing goes to the Libby’s team main appeal that Fitz was improperly appointed since the appointment made him a principal officer, which would have to go through the Senate since he answers to no one.

Either way the Libby team was prepared for this development and I’m sure they have the appeal already filled out.

This joke of a trial is not over yet.

I’m with Jeff Goldstein here on the Libby charade.  Why is there no wall to wall media coverage of Sandy Berger?  There was none when he stuffed his pants, there was none the other day when he gave up his law license in exchange for not telling all.  He would rather never practice law again rather then divulge what he stole and why, but this was received with a yawn.

Ronald Cass:

What information was worth risking his reputation, his career, and his freedom to keep hidden? And who was he risking that for?

Recently, the Board of the DC Bar, which had granted Berger his license, began asking those questions. There was only one way to stop that investigation, to keep from answering questions about what he did and why he did it, to keep the Bar from questioning his colleagues in the Clinton Administration about what had been in the documents Berger destroyed.

Berger took that step, surrendering his license, and stopping the investigation.

This case truly damaged our country while this Libby case is nothing.  Nothing!  How in the world is this a big deal?  A man gets railroaded for perjury on a criminal case that never was.  How could he have obstructed an investigation into outing a covert agent when she was not covert under statue? 

But that’s neither here nor there.  What I’m talking about is the simple fact that even had this been a true leak of a covert agent, ONE covert agent, the case pales in comparison to the crime Sandy Berger committed.

But nothing from the MSM.  Nothing from the left.  The only one’s writing about it at all are the conservative blogs, and that’s it.

Jeff Goldstein:

Meanwhile, right here in front of us, we have a case where Sandy Berger, a former National Security Advisor, has voluntarily surrendered his law license rather than come clean about what documents he destroyed, why he destroyed them, and who he was trying to protect in doing so.

When I begin to hear the same people who’ve been braying for Libby’s blood take similar aim at Berger—and by all rights, their animus should be even more concentrated, given Berger’s position and power, and given the nature of his crime, which involved the pilfering and destruction of classified documents—I’ll take their defenses of the Libby show trial more seriously.

But this will never come.  The lefties will go on and on about how terrible the Plame case was but  completely ignore the Berger case.  A case in which a much bigger fish would rather lose his license rather then to spill the beans.  How else could anyone look at this and not believe he is hiding something big. 

Ronald Cass again:

Justice Department officials who investigated the missing documents initially were persuaded that Berger must, as he claimed, have taken documents by mistake and then destroyed them to avoid having sensitive material in his possession. The plea agreement was based on the assumption that Berger was mishandling classified material - not manhandling it:

Now, however, it is clear that there was nothing innocent or inadvertent in Berger’s conduct. He has something to hide and, whatever it is, he was terrified that at least some part of it would come out of a non-criminal hearing before the Bar. With no possible criminal charges to face, he could not have claimed a right against self-incrimination. He could no longer get away with saying that he took documents accidentally, took them only to prepare for up-coming hearings (why, then, take five copies of one memo?), or didn’t intend to destroy them. He would, in other words, have had to say more than he has so far.

We don’t know with any certainty what is missing, which papers exactly are gone, or what notes - and whose notes - may have been on them. Berger’s lawyer asserted that the 9/11 Commission had copies of all the material Berger stole and destroyed. But if that is so, why would Berger risk so much to destroy it and be so keen today on avoiding any real inquiry into what he did?

Berger had access to Archives documents that could be critical to understanding what information the Clinton Administration had, what options it considered, and what decisions it took on these sensitive subjects. In addition to primary documents, Berger had access to copies, and the only plausible reason for taking five copies of a single memo is that some had original notes on them from key officials, maybe from Berger or President Clinton.

For Berger to risk jail and disgrace, to then give up the right to practice his profession merely in order to avoid having to answer questions, he must be hiding something important. And if it is that important to him, it is also important to us.

But hey, lets put faulty memories and other side shows up on the front page.  Lets write books about it and talk it about it incessantly for years.

Why bother with a very high level Clinton stooge stealing top secret documents about the war on terror from the National Archives and ADMITTING he made false statements during the investigation.  Did he serve 30 months?  Nope.  Because you see, the real news is that some assistant to the VP lied about a case that never really was a case.

Now THATS news!

Now the Libby case has done gone crazy:

“Former White House aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby’s hopes of avoiding prison in the CIA leak case began to dim Tuesday as a federal judge ruled he could face a longer sentence because the investigation he obstructed was so serious.

Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, is the highest-ranking official convicted of a crime since the Iran Contra affair.

Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald wants to put Libby in prison for up to three years because the investigation he was convicted of obstructing—the leak of a CIA operative’s identity—was so serious. Libby’s attorneys are seeking no jail time and argue that it’s unfair to increase the sentence simply because the investigation was serious.

“No one was ever charged. Nobody ever pleaded guilty,” attorney William Jeffress said. “The government did not establish the existence of an offense.”

U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton didn’t accept that. By that reasoning, Walton said, witnesses benefit if they aggressively obstruct investigations so prosecutors can’t make their case.

“I just can’t buy in on that being good social policy,” said Walton, who has a reputation as a tough sentencing judge. “It’s one thing if you obstruct a petty larceny. It’s another thing if you obstruct a murder investigation.”

So now the Judge is ruling on whether the prosecutor had enough to try someone on a case never brought before him?  And comparing this to a murder investigation?

We can see where this is going folks.  Expect the book to be thrown at Libby today even though the probation office has suggested leniency:

Former vice presidential aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby should be considered for leniency when he’s sentenced today on perjury and other charges, says the office that helps federal judges calculate sentences.

Libby qualifies for a lighter sentence than the 15 to 21 months recommended by federal sentencing guidelines, says the U.S. district court’s probation office. The office, which filed its recommendations in court papers, cites Libby’s public service, damage already done to his career and the fact he was not charged with or convicted of the "underlying crime" for which he was investigated.

Expect it, but also expect the appeal to be quite strong.

UPDATE 0852 hrs PST

And just as I expected the Judge threw the book at him.  30 months in prison and a $200,000 fine (check comments at 1152hrs EST).  Appeal time baby.

UPDATE II

The Judge said this at one point according to the comment thread referenced above:

...My take on evidence presented, no evidence that Mr Libby knew that Ms Wilson status was, but being NSA for VP seems to me that anybody in that high level position had a unique obligation that before they said anything said anything associated with national security agency…

How is this an issue when it was not an issue at trial?

UPDATE III

Possible good news, he may be released pending appeal:

Apparently he will be released pending appeal:
"Within 72 hours report to probation department and abide by supervised release.

In ref to obstruction, 30 months, To other counts, to 15 months, concurrent. Supervised release for 2 years following release from detention.

He must provide sample of DNA, he will be required to contribute 400 hour of community service.

Short break, will proceed with bond issue"

But not certain since proceedings are going on.

Tom Maguire notes in his newest Plame post that there is an easy way to find out if Plame was indeed covert under the IIPC. 

“The term ‘covert agent’ means—

(A) a present or retired officer or employee of an intelligence agency . . .

(i) whose identity as such an officer, employee, or member is classified information, and

(ii) who is serving outside the United States or has within the last five years served outside the United States.”

Many of us pundits on the right have said this over and over and over again over the years, find out if she served outside the US within the last five years prior to her name being leaked and TA-DA!  Question answered.

Well, no so fast.  If she had served within the prior five years was it in covert status or not? 

Lots of varying shades of grey in this case but I think the most telling part is that NO ONE was charged with the leak.  But at least give us the dates she supposedly served overseas. 

But, as Tom notes, Patrick Fitzgerald won’t tell us or the defense it seems.  Their sentencing summary contains only this brief explanation about any overseas work:

“She traveled at least seven times to more than 10 countries,” the document states. “When traveling overseas, Ms. Wilson always traveled under a cover identity … At the time of the initial unauthorized disclosure in the media of Ms. Wilson’s employment relationship with the CIA on 14 July 2003, Ms. Wilson was a covert CIA employee for whom the CIA was taking affirmative measures to conceal her intelligence relationship to the United States.”

No dates.  Just that she traveled seven times during her career.  Why would they conceal the dates because they most certainly had access to that information, namely that being her pension file.  By law CIA officers are entitled to an upward adjustment in their pension for serving abroad so her file should show this, WITH the dates.  So did they have access to the file:

Is it possible that the DoJ investigators did not have access to her file?  No, per footnote 2 on page 5 of the sentencing calculations, we are assured that "The investigators were given access to Ms. Wilson’s classified file".

So why no friggin dates?

This smells to high heaven.  Clarice Feldman concurs:

Fitzgrald’s "evidence" for this is largely taken from the recent Waxman hearing, which proved no such thing, and an undated summary of her personnel records, which also prove no such thing. He has deliberately conflated the Agency’s terminology with that of the far more restrictive language in the Act and hidden from view the facts necessary to ascertain when her service abroad ended, a necessary factor in such an analysis. (Her husband in his book said she stopped serving abroad in 1997,which, if true, would place her outside the purview of the IIPA.) Certainly the same service records (including pension records) summarized by the Prosecution reveal when her service abroad ended. Why has he not presented these records to the Court and defendant?

Because why should he when it’s obvious there is one set of rules for the left, and a completely different set for the right.  The very fact that Fitz tells the judge and the defense that her status isn’t relevant for the trial….but NOW it is during the sentencing speaks volumes. 

That is not how our criminal justice system works.

This is not right - our legal system has discovery rules for a reason.  IF Ms. Plame’s formal dates for service abroad buttress the prosecution position, that should be disclosed to the defense so that they will not waste time pursuing a false trail, or so that the prosecution can prepare arguments that the CIA formal procedures do not comport with the language and intent of the IIPA.  On the other hand, if her formal dates for service abroad support the defense position, that should be disclosed so that the defense can argue that this represents the best established practice and settles the issue.

But it is simply not appropriate for Fitzgerald to unilaterally conceal this from the defense, especially when it is a reasonable guess that it was concealed because it would aid the defense.

Check out a few comments left at Tom’s site:

But, even if everything were released tomorrow and it proved that Val really did qualify under the five year rule, you still have to get around the other provision of taking "affirmative measures" to protect her identity. Harlow’s actions negate that right off the bat and Val’s own actions of openly identifying herself and introducing her husband at the meeting that generated the INR memo just add to the lack of evidence of affirmative measures. Afterall it was her actions that ultimately allowed Armitage to blab about her to a nationally syndicated columnist and her husband’s ego needs vis a vis Who’s Who that verified her name.

Fitz turned