In other words, the accusations against Rove that Wells cited in his opening statements have nothing to do with the perjury, obstruction of justice, and lying to investigators Libby was charged with, which is exactly the point Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald had made in his opening statements to jurors hours earlier.
Fitzgerald described in startling detail the lengths to which Libby and other White House officials went in order to attack a single critic of the Iraq war, Plame's husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson, whose stinging rebukes of the administration's use of pre-war Iraq intelligence enraged Cheney and set in motion a chain of events that led Libby, and many other senior cabinet members, to leak Wilson's wife's identity to some of the most well-known reporters in Washington, DC, in an attempt to silence him.
Fitzgerald provided jurors with a visual timeline of the events that led up to May 2003, when Cheney first found out about Wilson and Plame, and the unusual obsession the vice president, Libby, and many other officials had, in the ensuing days, with beating back the criticism that Wilson piled on the administration during the month of June and July 2003.
One of the more astonishing revelations during the first day of the trial was the revelation by Wells that as many as six government witnesses, including Ari Fleischer, who at the time of the Plame leak was White House press secretary, received an immunity deal in exchange for testimony. It was not disclosed whether Fleischer received "transactional" or "blanket" immunity, or "use" immunity, which would allow the government to prosecute a witness using evidence obtained independently of a witness's immunized testimony. It is rare for the government to provide a witness with transactional immunity.
"When the FBI asked to speak to Mr. Fleischer, Mr. Fleischer asserted the Fifth Amendment," Wells said, referring to the law protecting a witness against self-incrimination. "Mr. Fleischer refused to testify. He said, I plead the Fifth. I will not testify about anything unless I am immunized. I want complete protection from anything."
Indeed Fleischer, Wells said, told NBC News reporter David Gregory and possibly other reporters that Wilson's wife worked at the CIA, that her name was Valerie Plame, and that she was responsible for sending Wilson to Niger. Fleischer testified before a grand jury that in addition to Libby, his boss, White House Communications Director Dan Bartlett also told him Plame worked for the CIA and was married to Wilson. After Bartlett discussed the Plame matter with Fleischer, the press secretary leaked it to reporters.
Gregory never reported what Fleischer had told him, but his involvement in the leak case, which has not been previously reported, along with that of numerous other journalists, underscores the often cooperative relationship between the Washington press corps and officials in the White House. More on Jason's article.
Great article, Jason!
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