Saturday, February 24, 2007

Libby Trial: Final Arguments for Scooter, Cheney & the Truth

From David Corn:

Cover-up or scapegoating.

Nine conversations or two.

Scooter Libby the liar, or Karl Rove the liar.

A cloud unfairly placed over Dick Cheney, or Libby and Cheney placing a cloud over the White House.

As the prosecution and the defense teams in the perjury trial of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby presented closing arguments on Tuesday, each side tried to encapsulate its case--and portrayed distinctly opposing views of reality.

"This case was about lying," prosecutor Peter Zeidenberg said at the start of the government's summation. He maintained that during the CIA leak investigation Libby, the former chief of staff for Vice President Cheney, lied to the FBI and grand jury about how he had learned that Valerie Wilson was a CIA employee, whom he had talked to about her, and what he had told others about former Ambassador Joseph Wilson's wife. Referring to the opening argument of lead defense attorney Ted Wells, Zeidenberg pointed out that Team Libby had contended their client was an innocent man who had been turned into a sacrificial lamb by a White House desperate to protect Karl Rove, the administration's uber-strategist. But, he continued, Libby's lawyers introduced no evidence to support that flashy charge. "Unfulfilled promises from counsel," he added, "do not constitute evidence."



Fitzgerald offered a solid case. Wells offered several possibilities for any juror looking for a peg for a reasonable-doubt argument. Now twelve jurors will have to answer the question: who was sacrificed--Scooter Libby or the truth?

http://davidcorn.com/

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