Walton opens by discussing the issue of handing over to the defense the previously withheld affidavits filed on behalf of Tim Russert before an agreement was reached on providing his testimony to the grand jury. He thinks that the privacy issues that justified keeping them secret before are no longer applicable, so — even though he doesn't think there's anything notable in the affidavits — he's ruling that Fitzgerald has to hand them over to the defense. Fitzgerald doesn't protest much; he agrees to redact the portions he thinks still should be protected by grand jury secrecy rules, and he'll submit the redacted affidavits at the first break in testimony.
Walton also returns to a couple of articles (Articles 412 and 413) where he'd limited how much of them the prosecution could present to the jury as evidence. (This was brought up at the end of my last post last night.) Walton now sees the point of what Fitzgerald was arguing, so he's going to let them use more of the articles than he would previously. The defense objects, arguing that the prosecution hasn't established a foundation for providing the articles. Walton politely brushes this
Now they're bringing the jury in. It's 9:40am ET.
Walton also returns to a couple of articles (Articles 412 and 413) where he'd limited how much of them the prosecution could present to the jury as evidence. (This was brought up at the end of my last post last night.) Walton now sees the point of what Fitzgerald was arguing, so he's going to let them use more of the articles than he would previously. The defense objects, arguing that the prosecution hasn't established a foundation for providing the articles. Walton politely brushes this
Now they're bringing the jury in. It's 9:40am ET.
Update 2:
We're now back in March 2004, with the replay of Scooter Libby's second grand jury appearance. When we left off last time, they were about to talk about Libby's July 12, 2003 phone call to Judith Miller.
Fitzgerald finishes the odd (and as-yet-unexplained) line of questioning of how many phones Libby has from which he can call, then gets Scooter to reiterate that, according to him, he did not discuss Joe Wilson's wife with Miller during their meeting on July 8th — only insta-declassified language from the National Intelligence Estimate justifying White House claims that Iraq was trying to obtain uranium from Niger. Fitz exhaustively walks Libby through his previously described steps of getting authorization to leak this information, since he was leery of giving out previously classified information. And that this was the first time he had passed this information along to a reporter.
Now Fitz pulls out a note to Scooter from Cathie Martin about his conversation with the NYT's David Sanger on July 2nd. (Uh-oh, Scooter.)
Sanger's name is misspelled on the memo, which causes chuckles in the media room, especially in the vicinity of the NY Times' representative.
Now Fitz has segued — I must have missed something — to when Scooter asked the VP about sharing information from Robert Novak's column outing Valerie Plame with reporters. Does he remember when, after the Novak column came out, you discussed this with the VP?
L: No.
F: But you do remember that you might have discussed with the VP before the Novak column
L: Yes, might have discussed it on July 12.
F: Do you know if you spoke to the Wall Street Journal about the NIE before July 18th (when it was officially declassified)?
L: No, I didn't.
F: Do you know who did?
L: Secretary Wolfowitz did.
(Long discussion of WSJ article)
F: Did you send Wolfowitz any information for this article?
L: No.
F: Did you send him the redacted version of the NIE, or talking points, you showed to Judith Miller?
L: No.
(More discussion
F: The editorial says the information did not come from the White House, correct?
L: Yes.
F: The information came from Wolfowitz, with the approval of the White House, correct?
L: No (interrupts self) He told me he was going to give them information, yes, sir.
(F. brings up VP meeting with conservative columnists on July 17th or so — more efforts to get message out on uranium)
F: Was there discussion about Wilson?
L: We passed out already-declassified portions of NIE
F: What was your view of Wilson at this time?
L: That his argument had been refuted, for anyone who would look at the facts. (walks through WH spiel on this again)
F: Did you think that Wilson was making an honest portrayal of the facts?
Fitzgerald finishes the odd (and as-yet-unexplained) line of questioning of how many phones Libby has from which he can call, then gets Scooter to reiterate that, according to him, he did not discuss Joe Wilson's wife with Miller during their meeting on July 8th — only insta-declassified language from the National Intelligence Estimate justifying White House claims that Iraq was trying to obtain uranium from Niger. Fitz exhaustively walks Libby through his previously described steps of getting authorization to leak this information, since he was leery of giving out previously classified information. And that this was the first time he had passed this information along to a reporter.
Now Fitz pulls out a note to Scooter from Cathie Martin about his conversation with the NYT's David Sanger on July 2nd. (Uh-oh, Scooter.)
Sanger's name is misspelled on the memo, which causes chuckles in the media room, especially in the vicinity of the NY Times' representative.
Now Fitz has segued — I must have missed something — to when Scooter asked the VP about sharing information from Robert Novak's column outing Valerie Plame with reporters. Does he remember when, after the Novak column came out, you discussed this with the VP?
L: No.
F: But you do remember that you might have discussed with the VP before the Novak column
L: Yes, might have discussed it on July 12.
F: Do you know if you spoke to the Wall Street Journal about the NIE before July 18th (when it was officially declassified)?
L: No, I didn't.
F: Do you know who did?
L: Secretary Wolfowitz did.
(Long discussion of WSJ article)
F: Did you send Wolfowitz any information for this article?
L: No.
F: Did you send him the redacted version of the NIE, or talking points, you showed to Judith Miller?
L: No.
(More discussion
F: The editorial says the information did not come from the White House, correct?
L: Yes.
F: The information came from Wolfowitz, with the approval of the White House, correct?
L: No (interrupts self) He told me he was going to give them information, yes, sir.
(F. brings up VP meeting with conservative columnists on July 17th or so — more efforts to get message out on uranium)
F: Was there discussion about Wilson?
L: We passed out already-declassified portions of NIE
F: What was your view of Wilson at this time?
L: That his argument had been refuted, for anyone who would look at the facts. (walks through WH spiel on this again)
F: Did you think that Wilson was making an honest portrayal of the facts?
L: In July 6 op-ed, he said he was open to correction, at this point I thought he should have seen that he was incorrect.
F: Do you think it was appropriate for him to go on that mission in 2002?
L: It's not for me to say.
It's 10:07am ET.
F: Do you think it was appropriate for him to go on that mission in 2002?
L: It's not for me to say.
It's 10:07am ET.
More on the Libby trial.
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