by antiaristo » Fri Nov 04, 2005 11:01 am
I put this here in order to alert my non-British friends.<br>Julian Borger is a superb reporter who has often scooped domestic US reporters.<br>And the Guardian prints him.<br>He's well worth following.<br><br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>Libby pleads not guilty as White House braces for scandal hearing <br><br>· Case will delve deeply into argument for Iraq war <br>· Vice president likely to be called as witness <br><br>Julian Borger in Washington<br>Friday November 4, 2005<br>The Guardian <br><br><br>Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the vice presidential adviser who helped build the US case for the Iraq war, stood before a judge yesterday, then had his fingerprints and mugshot taken as a long-simmering intelligence leak scandal arrived in court.<br>Mr Libby pleaded not guilty to five counts in total, including lying to a grand jury, making false statements to federal investigators, and obstruction of justice. Later his lawyers vowed he would not strike a plea deal but would fight to clear his name. However, the appearance in court of a top neo-conservative who only a few days ago was one of the most powerful men in the White House marked an ominous milestone for the embattled Bush administration.<br><br>Mr Libby was the first White House official to be indicted while in office since Orville Babcock, President Ulysses Grant's secretary, who was charged 130 years ago for a whisky tax scam. High-placed miscreants since then, including the Watergate defendants, have chosen to resign before being charged.<br>Mr Libby stuck to his post as vice president Dick Cheney's chief of staff until last week's indictment, for lying about his role in the 2003 outing of a CIA agent, Valerie Plame, the wife of a critic of the Iraq war.<br><br>Yesterday, he stood in the same spot in the same Washington courtroom as Colonel Oliver North, the central figure in the Iran-Contra scandal that overshadowed the last years of the Reagan administration.<br><br>This affair is threatening to take as great a toll on the Bush White House. Karl Rove, President Bush's closest adviser, is still under active investigation by the special prosecutor in the case, Patrick Fitzgerald, and there were signs yesterday that the strain was beginning to show.<br><br>"Top White House aides" quoted in the Washington Post said Mr Rove's future was being privately discussed, and argued he may have become too heavy a burden on an already distracted administration.<br><br>Mr Cheney is almost certain to be a witness in Mr Libby's case and could be in legal jeopardy himself if he turns out to be one of the unnamed officials mentioned in the indictment who discussed Ms Plame on Air Force Two in June 2003.<br><br>The case will also delve deeply into the building of the White House case for war in Iraq, based largely on alleged weapons of mass destruction that turned out not to exist. It was an argument Mr Libby, a former lawyer himself, took a lead role in assembling on his boss's behalf.<br><br>The sensitivity of the coming trial was clear in yesterday's proceedings as lawyers discussed the declassifying of thousands of documents and seeking security clearance for defence lawyers to hear secret evidence, which will take up to six weeks. The next hearing will not be until February 3.<br><br>In a sign of its nervousness the White House has issued a memo to its staff ordering them not to communicate with Mr Libby. He limped into court on crutches (having broken his foot running up stairs at home) accompanied only by his lawyers and his wife, Harriet. She slipped her hand round his waist and gave him an encouraging pat on the backside before the hearing began.<br><br>When his turn to answer to the charges came, Mr Libby levered himself up, set his crutches against the court lectern at the centre of the wood panel and marble court, and said: "With respect, your honour, I plead not guilty."<br><br>It was all over in minutes. He was released without bail, "under his own cognisance", and left his legal team and his wife waiting in a corridor while he was photographed and fingerprinted in the marshal's office in the basement.<br><br>The entourage then walked out into a pack of journalists and television cameras waiting at a side entrance, where Mr Libby's newly hired defence lawyer, Ted Wells, a frequent player in past administration scandals, voiced the fallen official's defiance. "Mr Libby has pleaded not guilty to each and every count in the indictment," Mr Wells said. "In pleading not guilty he has declared to the world that he is innocent. He has declared he intends to fight the charges in the indictment, and he has declared that he wants to clear his good name, and he wants a jury trial."<br><br>The Libbys were bundled into a black limousine, and began the long wait for the trial. It is not clear what Mr Libby plans to do now. He once voiced a longing to get away from it all in Crete to drink "odd-named wines" and pursue his other vocation as a novelist. He published an exotic and erotic tale called The Apprentice, set in Japan a century ago and featuring young girls being raped by bears.<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1627492,00.html">www.guardian.co.uk/usa/st...92,00.html</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br> <p></p><i></i>
