[eDebate] truthout gets more on rove

[Jake Stromboli]

article starts with "told by another white house official..." and circles 
around to rove in the end...maybe he is totally exonerated because he had 
nothing to do with nothing which is the naive view or he was forced to turn 
state's evidence cuz he was right in the middle of the thicket:

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/070606Z.shtml

Transcripts Reveal Reporter's Central Role in Plame Outing
    By Jason Leopold
    t r u t h o u t | Report

    Thursday 06 July 2006

    Notebooks belonging to former New York Times reporter Judith Miller 
indicate she may have been told about covert CIA operative Valerie Plame 
Wilson by another White House official before her first meeting in late June 
2003 with I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former 
chief of staff who was indicted last year related to his role in the 
Plame-Wilson leak, an attorney representing Libby claims.


    According to a May 16, 2006, court transcript obtained by Truthout, 
Libby attorney William Jeffress told US District Court judge Reggie B. 
Walton that redacted versions of Miller's notebooks turned over to the 
defense during the discovery phase of the Libby criminal proceedings show 
that "Ms. Miller was investigating and focusing on [former Ambassador 
Joseph] Wilson before the very first time that she met with Mr. Libby, that 
is before June 23, 2003."

    "There are numerous entries throughout those notebooks to 'V.F.,' or 
'Victoria Wilson,' or to 'Valerie Wilson,' all of which indicate that she 
[Miller] is talking to someone else about Mr. Wilson's wife," Jeffress said, 
according to a copy of the 128-page transcript. "What she learned and when 
she learned it about Mr. Wilson's wife is extremely - it is right at the 
heart of this case."

    Jeffress claims that Miller's notes contain suspicious markings, such as 
the use of parentheses referring to Plame-Wilson's work at the "bureau." And 
in an entry dating to a meeting Libby and Miller had on July 8, 2003, 
Miller's notes indicate that Plame-Wilson works for "WINPAC" or Weapons 
Intelligence, Proliferation and Arms Control, and includes a question mark 
at the end of the entry.

    Additionally, prior to Miller's interview with Libby, Jeffress claims, 
Miller had already written down Plame-Wilson's name in her notebook; 
however, it was inscribed in her notes as "Victoria Wilson," meaning that 
the disclosure came from someone other than Libby, Jeffress told Walton.

    Countering allegations raised by Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald 
that Libby and other White House officials were engaged in a "concerted 
effort" to discredit Wilson by leaking his wife's covert CIA status and 
identity to the media, Jeffress said Libby was only speaking to reporters to 
prove that Wilson's claims about flawed Iraqi intelligence had no merit.

    "I think it is certainly more likely than not," Jeffress said, "that Mr. 
Libby, or others in the White House, would have developed this supposed plot 
to out his [Joseph Wilson's] wife to discredit Wilson if there weren't the 
fact that the response to Wilson was in the words recorded by another 
witness of the vice president, 'It would be a serious mistake to do anything 
less than full disclosure' ... that's what Mr. Libby was about, about 
getting out the truth."

    The May 16th hearing involving Libby's attorneys and lawyers 
representing NBC News, the New York Times, Time magazine, and reporters 
including Miller, Andrea Mitchell, and Matthew Cooper of Time, was held to 
hear arguments about the media companies' refusal to turn over reporter's 
notes to Libby's defense team.

    In a previously undisclosed development, Massimo Calabresi, a Time 
magazine reporter who shared a byline with Matthew Cooper on the second 
story printed about Wilson and his wife called Wilson prior to Novak's July 
14, 2003, column and discussed with Wilson Cooper's conversation with Karl 
Rove in which Rove disclosed Plame-Wilson's CIA work to Cooper.

    "Now that is a conversation that would be relevant to show what Mr. 
Massimo said to Mr. Wilson as to how many sources Cooper had," Jeffress told 
Judge Walton in arguing why Cooper's notes and drafts of his articles should 
be turned over to the defense.

    "Mr. Cooper had said something to Mr. Massimo, at least about his 
conversation with Karl Rove, which caused Mr. Massimo to call Joe Wilson to 
ask about his wife and about what Cooper had heard from Karl Rove," Jeffress 
said.

    Cooper "talked to Karl Rove on July 11 [2003]," Jeffress told Walton 
during the court hearing. "Karl Rove told him that Wilson's wife worked at 
the CIA and may have sent Wilson on the [Niger] trip. There is an email by 
Mr. Cooper, again to his editor, on July 16 [2003], four days after his 
conversation with Mr. Libby and five days after his conversation with Mr. 
Rove about the article they are planning to write in which they are going to 
mention the wife. And the email says - talks about him having an 
administration source for the information about Ms. Wilson."

    Jeffress said that the defense has obtained emails and notes written by 
Cooper that the reporter sent to his editor following a conversation he had 
with Libby on July 16, 2003, that prove Libby never mentioned Plame-Wilson 
to Cooper. Rather, Jeffress said, Cooper mentioned Plame-Wilson's work at 
the CIA to Libby. These emails, Jeffress maintains, may help prove to a jury 
that Libby did not intentionally lie to the grand jury when he testified 
that he found out about Plame-Wilson's work with the CIA from reporters.

    Moreover, Jeffress argued that Time should be required to turn over 
drafts of Cooper's first person account of his grand jury testimony 
published in Time July 25, 2005, so the defense can determine if it reads 
differently from the final version of the article that appeared in the 
magazine and could subsequently help prove Cooper is not a credible 
prosecution witness.

    Judge Walton agreed.

    "Upon reviewing the documents presented to it, the Court discerns a 
slight alteration between the several drafts of the articles, which the 
defense could arguably use to impeach Cooper," Walton wrote in his May 26 
ruling. "This slight alteration between the drafts will permit the defendant 
to impeach Cooper, regardless of the substance of his trial testimony, 
because his trial testimony cannot be consistent with both versions."

    Jason Leopold spent two years covering California's electricity crisis 
as Los Angeles bureau chief of Dow Jones Newswires. Jason has spent the last 
year cultivating sources close to the CIA leak investigation, and is a 
regular contributor to Truthout. He is the author of the new book NEWS 
JUNKIE. Visit www.newsjunkiebook.com for a preview.

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