Plame Gossip - Libby motions and more

All sorts of Plame news today. The headline story is that Judge Reggie Walton pretty much did what was expected and told Libby's defense team to sit down and shut up. Libby's attorneys had filed a whole raft of motions with slim chances in an effort to bog down or dismiss the case. A short list of some of those motions:

1) that Libby should be given access to 275 or so Presidential Daily Briefs to help refresh his memory. (a blatant effort at greymail because the administration could cripple the prosecution by refusing to declassify them.) The decision on this was put off until a later date, but I see it as highly doubtful.

2) that Libby should be given the name of the original leaker of Plame's identity. (thrown out because he is being tried for PERJURY, not outing Plame, although the Defense Fund was pulling hard for that one as it would've helped the other investigatees.)

3) my favorite, that Fitzgerald's role is unconstitutional. (Nice try. Maybe it'll keep Libby out of prison for a year while they appeal.)

But the real news today came from off the beaten path. Jason Leopold reported that two State Dept employees who cooperated with the probe have been punished by removing them from their jobs to less important busy work. Reprisals of people cooperating with the investigation? I thought the President said his administration would cooperate fully.

And the AP has reported that the White House has suddenly located and turned over those 250 emails from the Vice President's office that were missing and were not properly archived from the critical time period. Funny how those emails just suddenly turned up after two years when Fitzgerald made their "missing" status public just three weeks ago.

So, the tectonics are shifting a bit. In the motions exchange over the last couple of weeks, Fitzgerald very intentionally showed a little of his hand and changed the dynamics of the other side a bit. He told them that he knew who leaked Plame's name and that he knew that certain possibly illegal acts had been undertaken to make his finding that out tougher.

Basically, he told the other investigatees through oblique clues in the Libby motions, I know what you did, and I know more than you think I do, and if you look at Libby, you'll know I'm not afraid to charge you with obstruction. If you don't tell me what I want to know, you could be the one in Scooter's shoes.

It seems to me like he is trying to alter the pressure to get one of the conspirators to flip and take a plea deal. The conspiracy would be much simpler to charge and prosecute with one of the conspirators singing loudly.

I'm not an expert on this by any means, but Fitzgerald seems to be playing this masterfully. I still think he's going to indict several other administration officials, but the descriptions of Fitzgerald always include the word "methodical." Unfortunately, for those watching this case, that translates to very slow.