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Report: Fitz Talked to Wilsons' Neighbors Today

The Los Angeles Times reports that Fitzgerald's team went out to interview neighbors of Joseph Wilson and Valerie Plame Wilson today to ascertain whether they knew she worked for the CIA.

CNN had more tonight (available on Lexis.com):

A neighbor of Valerie Plame has been interviewed by FBI agents for the second time. The agents asked Marc Lefkowitz on Monday night whether he knew about Plame's work at the CIA before her identity was leaked in a July 2003 column. Lefkowitz told agents he did not, according to his wife, Elise Lefkowitz. ...Lefkowitz said this is the second time FBI agents have asked whether the couple was aware of Plame's CIA work. She said the first interview took place several months ago.

FBI agents are looking into who leaked Plame's name to the press. Federal law makes it a crime to deliberately reveal the identity of a CIA operative, and special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is heading a probe into the matter. (Posted 6:01 p.m.)

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Clemons: Other Shoe Drops Tomorrow

It's past 5pm on the East Coast. The courthouse is closed. Steve Clemons of the Washington Note, however, has this update:

An uber-insider source has just reported the following to TWN:

1. 1-5 indictments are being issued. The source feels that it will be towards the higher end.
2. The targets of indictment have already received their letters.
3. The indictments will be sealed indictments and "filed" tomorrow.
4. A press conference is being scheduled for Thursday.

Tonight should see some of the finest spinning yet from those under Fitzgerald's gun.

Update: Political Wire reports White House officials are turning on each other.

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The Crime in Outing a CIA Agent

While we're waitng for the other shoe to drop, go read former Senator Gary Hart over at HuffPo on the crime of outing a CIA Agent.

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NYT: Tenet Told Cheney Who Told Libby

Just breaking in tomorrow's New York Times: Scooter Libby took notes during a June 12 conversation with Vice President Dick Cheney. In them, he writes that Cheney learned about Valerie Wilson working for the CIA from George Tenet.

Shorter version: Libby lied to protect Cheney, who may or may not have needed him to lie, and now Libby is hoisted on his own petard.

Notes of the previously undisclosed conversation between Mr. Libby and Mr. Cheney on June 12, 2003, appear to differ from Mr. Libby�s testimony to a federal grand jury that he initially learned about the C.I.A. officer, Valerie Wilson, from journalists, the lawyers said. The notes, taken by Mr. Libby during the conversation, for the first time place Mr. Cheney in the middle of an effort by the White House to learn about Ms. Wilson�s husband, Joseph C. Wilson IV...

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Report: Wurmser Told Libby and Hadley

Oh, and it's a hollow feelin'
When it comes down to dealin' friends
It never ends

The Eagles, Tequila Sunrise

Raw Story Exclusive:

Those close to the investigation say that Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has been told that David Wurmser, then a Middle East adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney, met with Cheney and his chief of staff I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby in June 2003 and told him that Plame set up the Wilson trip. He asserted that it was a boondoggle because she was a CIA agent, the sources said.

Libby then shared the information with Karl Rove, President Bush's deputy chief of staff, the sources said. Wurmser also passed on the same information about Wilson and his CIA to Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley and Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice, they added.

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Pre-Indictment Spin Planning

by TChris

How to spin an indictment:

With a decision expected this week on possible indictments in the C.I.A. leak case, allies of the White House suggested Sunday that they intended to pursue a strategy of attacking any criminal charges as a disagreement over legal technicalities or the product of an overzealous prosecutor.

Funniest spin: Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison claiming that she hopes "that if there is going to be an indictment that says something happened, that it is an indictment on a crime and not some perjury technicality where they couldn't indict on the crime and so they go to something just to show that their two years of investigation was not a waste of time and taxpayer dollars." Republicans who were so exercised about Bill Clinton's testimony regarding oral pleasure now believe that perjury is just a "technicality"?

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The Cover Up Statutes

Just to recap, while we're waiting:

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Report: Novak Cooperated

The Washington Post reports Monday that Robert Novak cooperated with Fitzgerald's probe in the Valerie Plame leaks case.

A critical early success for Fitzgerald was winning the cooperation of Robert D. Novak, the Chicago Sun-Times columnist who named Plame in a July 2003 story and attributed key information to "two senior administration officials." Legal sources said Novak avoided a fight and quietly helped the special counsel's inquiry, although neither the columnist nor his attorney have said so publicly.

While it's been pretty obvious Novak cooperated, this is the first MSM confirmation of it

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Fitzgerald to Decide and Tell Lawyers Monday

Reuters is reporting that Fitzgerald will tell lawyers Monday if their clients are targets and he intends to seek perjury or obstruction charges against them.

Top administration officials are expected to learn from Fitzgerald as early as Monday whether they will face charges as the prosecutor winds up his nearly two-year investigation, the lawyers said. Fitzgerald could convene the grand jury as early as Tuesday to lay out a final summary of the case and ask for approval of possible indictments, legal sources said. The grand jury hearing the CIA leak case normally meets on Wednesdays and is scheduled to expire on Friday unless Fitzgerald extends it.

It sounds like Rove is in negotiations:

Asked whether he was taking part in a final round of discussions with the prosecutor's office, Rove's attorney, Robert Luskin, said: "I'm just not going to comment on any possible interactions with Fitzgerald."

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Hannah's Lawyer Denies Target Status

Via Newsweek:

Last week Hannah's lawyer Thomas Green told NEWSWEEK his client "knew nothing" about the leak and is not a target of Fitzgerald's probe. "This is craziness," he said.

Raw Story says differently.

It sure seems someone high-up is cooperating. My money's on Rove. Why else does a lawyer like Luskin (most likely with advice from his law partner who is also a Republican advisor, Ben Ginsberg) send his client into the grand jury for a 4th time where he gives four and one half hours of testimony? Luskin has said all along his client is "cooperating fully" with Fitzgerald's investigation.

More on John Hannah here.

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A Kinder, Gentler Libby

The New York Times Sunday profiles Lewis "Scooter" Libby. While it's intended to be a humanizing piece, and it does accomplish that goal, it's also notable for possible clues as to what Libby is planning.

  • Clue One:

Mr. Libby, 55, might face indictment in the next week on charges of misleading investigators in the case or trying to cover up the extent of his involvement, lawyers involved in the case have said.

  • Clue Two:

But friends and associates said Mr. Libby is not at heart a political animal. They suggest that whatever legal problems he faces from his role in pushing back at criticism by a former ambassador, Joseph C. Wilson IV, of the administration's use of pre-war intelligence about Iraq's weapons programs, he was acting not as a political hatchet man but in defense of ideas and policies he believed in.

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Plame Grand Jury Met With Prosecutors Today

Reuters reports two of Fitzgerald's lead prosecutors, lugging giant legal briefcases, met with the grand jury today.

The grand jury, which expires on October 28, convened on Friday with two of the lead prosecutors present, but it was unclear what issues they were working on since the panel appears to have completed hearing from witnesses....One of the lawyers said prosecutors were likely starting to present their final case to jurors, either for bringing indictments or to explain why there was insufficient evidence to do so.

This should not be unclear at all. The prosecutors draft up the charges they want the grand jury to indict on, there will be discussions and questions and then the grand jury will vote on each charge presented to them.

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