Zoo Station

I have been scratching my head trying to make sense of the indictment that has been handed down by Patrick Fitzgerald. As Josh Marshall has pointed out, you know that both Cheney and Scooter knew that Valerie Plame was an undercover agent. A full reading of the indictment also shows that Scooter was lying and not once, but several times. So, you have to wonder what on earth Libby was thinking. There are only two possibilities really when you think about it. Either Libby is a complete idiot (which is very, very unlikely; Libby is regarded as a super smart chap) who handed his notes over to the prosecutor and then lied about its contents. So, if one assumes that Libby is not an idiot, then it must mean that these silly lies were meant to cover up for someone else. One of Andrew Sullivan's readers points to an even more plausible scenario, one that makes a lot of sense to me.

Seems like Fitz has a pretty strong case for the Espionage Act, and if Plame met the objective standards in the Intelligence Act, for that one too. And it seems like the fact that Libby lied repeatedly is very strong evidence of a culpable state of mind, belying any claim that he didn't "know" the info was classified or that divulging it was wrong. Add that to the very specific allegation in the indictment that he knew exactly where she worked, and there it is.

So why not charge it? Because Fitz has Libby nailed on the 5 counts from today's indictment. Just nailed. So he's bringing Libby in on those charges, they're going to talk some turkey, and Fitz is going to see if Libby will talk, maybe about VP, maybe about Official A (who's clearly Rove), or maybe about the VP's moles at State and in the CIA. Offer some carrots - maybe no jail - but if Libby refuses, then Fitz brings down the espionage or intelligence act charges. Libby has nowhere to go, and Fitz knows it. In my view, he's going to try to exploit that opening before wrapping this thing up.

If Libby does sing, given the real possibility of 30 years in prison, that probably means the VP and Rove are in a real spot bother. How loyal can Libby possibly be?