WSJ.com - Obstruction for What?"
A charge of lying about a crime that wasn't committed.
"Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation took nearly two years, sent a reporter to jail, cost millions of dollars and preoccupied some of the White House's senior officials. The fruit it has now borne is the five-count indictment of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the vice president's Chief of Staff -- not for leaking the name of Valerie Plame to Robert Novak, which started this entire "scandal," but for contradictions between his testimony and the testimony of two or three reporters about what he told them, when he told them, and what words he used.
Let us stipulate that impeding a criminal investigation is indeed a serious matter; no one should feel he can lie to a grand jury or to federal investigators. But there is a question to be asked about the end to which the accused allegedly lied. The indictment itself contains no motive. And Mr. Libby is not alleged to have been the source for Robert Novak's July 14, 2003 column, in which Valerie Plame's employment with the CIA was revealed.
Rather, according to the indictment, Mr. Libby did a little digging, found out who Joe Wilson's wife was, and apparently told Judith Miller of the New York Times, who never wrote it up, and Matthew Cooper of Time magazine, who put it into print after Mr. Novak's column had run. What's more, he allegedly did not talk to Tim Russert of NBC about it, although he claimed that he had. Mr. Libby then didn't tell a grand jury and the FBI the truth about what he told those reporters, the indictment claims."
Precisely. The prosecution will have a hard time convincing a jury that not remembering is lying, particularly when there is no apparent motive for the so-called lies. It is said that a grand jury can indict a dead man for crimes commited after his demise, so it was no great wonder that charges were filed, but the actual criminal case itself will be quite the different story.
They DID embarass the Vice President and the President, add fuel to the wacky left's bonfire of the vanities, and when Libby is found not guilty all the liberal side of the aisle will remember was that BUSH LIED, PEOPLE DIED.
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