At last! After six years of being lied to by the Bush administration and the pundits, the American people finally hold someone accountable.
It feels good.
As I predicted, Scooter Libby was found guilty of obstruction of justice and perjury for lying to investigators of the leak of Valerie Plame’s CIA employment status. Specifically, Libby was found guilty of one count of obstruction of justice, two counts of perjury for lying to the grand jury regarding his conversations with Matt Cooper and Tim Russert, and one count of making false statements to the FBI regarding his conversation with Russert. He was found not guilty of making false statements to the FBI about his conversation with Cooper.
According to a jury spokesman who took questions from the press after the trial, the members of the jury took a week just organizing the voluminous amount of evidence, using easels and Post-it notes, but once they got it all laid out, everyone pretty much agreed on what the evidence meant. They spent the most time on Count 3, the one they acquitted him on, because in that count, there was less difference between the opposing stories. The spokesman, a former journalist named Denis Collins who wrote a short book on the history of espionage, said that no one on the jury was partisan or knowledgeable about the background of the case before the trial started. He said many of the jurors had managerial experience, and they focused on organizing the evidence and coming to the best conclusion based on the evidence.
And the conclusion was (pay attention Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney): you lie to us, you go to jail.
Retired New York city detective always felt great like now when jurys do the right thing .Even an old time conservative like me want Bush and Cheney to do down too .They should not be a Left-Right issue but rather a Old Testament issue .Both are Old Testamnet type tyrants .
john
The jury brought back the exact verdict I predicted. The lying to the FBI regarding Cooper was too close to a he said/he said situation to rise to the level of beyond a reasonable doubt. Even here it was a close call according to one of the jurists.
“Where were all the others” echoed loudly. Fitzgerald has said to other charges will be filed. Rove should be thankful that Fitzgerald is no Ken Starr as the evidence is almost certainly there to convict.
But, like most American’s, this has dragged out long enough and we want life to return to normal. Now the focus can all be put on Iraq and ending that quagmire.
Scooter gets a few months at Club Fed! The administration is being held accountable! Pwoggie justice is served! Whoot!
Alan, despite the sarcasm you remain one of my all-time favorite film directors.