Libby is throwing Rove under the bus

January 24, 2007

The Libby Trial 1

by emptywheel

I'm sure you've all either read my liveblog or read some reviews of yesterday's coverage, so you know the stunners and new information from the first day of the trial:

• Libby is throwing Rove under the bus
• Ari leaked (according to the very unreliable Wells) to David Gregory, something which none of his colleagues knew
• Libby has his own annotated copy of Wilson's op-ed
• Cheney wrote some orders on Libby's sonnet looking for Scottie to clear him
• Armitage talked to Grossman the night before his FBI interview

I can't help but think there's an interesting dynamic going on. I've long argued that WH couldn't pardon Libby bc if they did it would make the civil case easier. Well, I can't count the number of times that Wells said Libby had "a day job" and his second "Meat Grinder" job of responding to Joe Wilson.

Geez. That seems like it would make it a slam dunk to take the civil case, at least to get past the bar of proving that whatever they did to Plame, they did it as a freelance activity, something outside the world of their ordinary duties.

So here's what I'm wondering. Pre-trial, the White House had an incentive to wait on a pardon beyond the resolution of the civil trial. But so long as Libby's team sits there exposing what Rove did and implicating Bush and so on, I think they've got a new incentive to pardon Libby.

It's an interesting dance, playing the criminal trial and the civil trial and the dying Bush Administration off of each other. Glad I have a front row seat.

January 24, 2007 at 07:26 in Bush/Republican Scandals, Contributor--emptywheel | Permalink