Libby Update

Evil washingtonpost.com update: The link below titled Pincus Reveals Fleisher etc. now points to Tuesday's story, a re-written version that does not include the gaffe flagged below. Remember this the next time the Post publishes a story about government officials hiding documents.

Update: As I said in the combox over at Just One Minute, I put this post up mainly to help gel in my own head what went on today. But I finally read all the way through the Goldstein/Leonnig story filed online at 5:22, Pincus Reveals Fleischer as CIA Leak Source and they got this wrong:

Also this morning, Libby's attorneys lost an effort to summon NBC reporter Andrea Mitchell to testify as a witness in his defense. U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton ruled that Mitchell does not need to testify, despite strenuous arguments byWells that the well-known television journalist could help discredit her colleague, the prosecution's key witness, Tim Russert, NBC News' Washington bureau chief.

Nope. They did lose an effort to guarantee she'll testify, but tomorrow she'll be called in to testify without the jury but in front of Judge Walton, who will decide whether the line of questioning Libby's attorneys want to pursue satisfies the rules of evidence.

Those rules are way over my head--but Mitchell isn't out, not yet.

Original post:

There are so many tangled threads in the Lewis Libby trial I'm not even sure I'll be able to intelligently critique the Post's coverage tomorrow what do you mean tomorrow but let me thrown down a few markers: here's the latest Goldstein/Leonnig story, filed late this afternoon online. And here are two comments, one from a highly respected commenter at Just One Minute named Maid Marion, who has attended many sessions including today's:

1) Overall this felt like a VERY strong day for the Defense and the first time I’ve seen Fitz nervous. I annotated in my notes “Fitz is nervous today” by the part where he was cross-examining Woodward about the Q-cards, which was in the morning, although he had been nervous even prior to that questioning. And he got worse as the day went on. Didn’t write this down so don’t have a time or topic, but at some point he was flailing (sp?) around trying to find some piece of paper…”chicken with its head cut-off” is what came to mind.

2) I felt a real difference between today’s witnesses (not so much Evan Thomas, though) and Russert and was wondering if the jury was making comparisons in their minds. Pincus, Sanger, Woodward, Novak and Kessler gave natural sounding answers…nothing pre-canned which is how some of Russert’s statements sounded (eg., his twice mentioning that the Buffalo News guy has “every right to his own opinion but not the facts” or his story as to the reason why it was “impossible” he didn’t tell Libby about Wilson’s wife.) Russert sounded rehearsed. Evan Thomas didn’t sound pre-canned, he just gave off huge vibes that he really wished he wasn’t in the courtroom; not so the others....

There seven more points so by all means check it out. And blogger AJ Strata stopped by in the comments section to, raising a point he elaborates on at his blog:

Listening to the full Woodward tape of Under Secretary of State Richard Armitage leaking the news about Plame must be giving Fitzgerald nightmares. CNN has posted the full tape played at the trial and it is astounding. The part that got me was when Armitage said “His wife named him”, and Woodward asks, “Why doesn’t this get out?”. Then Armitage says, on June 13th 2003, basically what Andrea Mitchell would say months later when she was talking off the cuff on CNBC. Armitage laughingly says “Everyone knows”...

Mitchell, as we've said, having denied she meant that later on. AJ continues:

But Armitage goes further and explains HOW everyone knew. Woodward repeats back incredulously “Everyone knew”? and Armitage provides the hard evidence of who was talking about Plame” .. because Joe Wilson has been calling everybody! He’s pissed off ’cause he’s looked at as some low level guy…”. I predicted long ago, and again just prior to the trial, it would come out that Joe and Valerie were both sources for Kristof and others. Armitage is not saying ‘everyone knows’ who Joe Wilson is (though they did). He is saying “everyone knows” who Plamne is because Wilson was calling everybody and spilling the beans on his wife! It is quite clear what Armitage is saying, and what I am betting he will testify too.

I have maintained the reason Fitz could not charge anyone with exposing Plame was because Plame had exposed herself (or Wilson had) to back up Joe’s wild claims about forged evidence....

For what it's worth. More at his site.