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It could be about that time.
The CIA leak investigation continues and while the media has not been covering it for a while, it popped back into the national consciousness this week after a flurry of court filings that seemed to hint (in a subtle-as-a sledgehammer-type way) that Scooter Libby, the Vice President's indicted top aide, may be pointing the finger at Cheney and other higher-ups in the administration, saying that Cheney "authorized" the classified disclosures at issue. Adding to the speculation is the fact that Libby has a new member of his defense team- none other than the former lawyer for Oliver North of Iran-Contra fame, Joe Cline.
Maybe it's just me, but the defense strategy is starting to sound eerily similar to the "I was just following orders" defense and considering the legal dream team Libby has watching his back, I would expect something a bit more, ummm, impressive.
But Jeralyn over at Talk Left has been analyzing the numerous court filings and it seems that there is more than meets the eye with respect to the defense strategy. Right now, they are trying to request the government to release as much classified information as possible in an effort to get them (the government) to drop the charges against Libby:
Should the Court agree with Libby and order the Government to provide classfied information to Libby's team, and the Government decides it does not want to comply with the order, one of its options would be to dismiss the charges against him. Thus, Libby will try to get the Judge to order the Government to turn over as much classified information as possible, hoping among the material is something the Government wants to protect so badly it would decide to drop the case against Libby rather than produce it.
Libby's defense is that he didn't lie to the grand jury, he just was so busy with other important matters he got confused or forgot what he disclosed to Judith Miller or discussed with Tim Russert or Matthew Cooper. He is asking for all of the documents, both classified and unclassified, that he either wrote or reviewed from May 6, 2003, the date Joseph Wilson's op-ed was published, through March 24, 2004, the date he last testified to the grand jury.
And if the "I was so busy I forgot who in the press I was revealing classified information to" defense doesn't work, Libby appears poised to implicate his former boss, VP Dick Cheney. And then things could really get interesting:
Libby's lawyers deny they are trying to blame Cheney.
The big question is whether Cheney knew and participated in the plan to discredit Joseph Wilson by leaking his wife's employment status with the CIA to reporters in an effort to suggest Wilson's trip was the result of nepotism and therefore a "boondoggle." We don't have the answer to that yet.
Darn. I wanted that answer, but I guess criminal law guru Jeralyn can't know everything all the time.