
Christopher Wolf, counsel for the Wilsons speaking first:
Summary of complaint:
Amb. Wilson exercised First Amendment rights to challenge the President about his justifications for going to war in Iraq.
Matter should and could have ended at the Administration admitting they were wrong about "the sixteen words."
Method chosen was to leak off the record, and not for attribution, the employment of Amb. Wilson’s wife, Valerie Plame Wilson.
We know today that senior officials leaked to other journalists, beyond Novak.
These leaks violated the civil rights of the Wilsons.
The exposure of Valerie Wilson not only exposed her to potential danger, but may also have exposed friends, colleagues or associates who may have worked with her or for her at the CIA.
The Wilsons do not want their civil suit in any way to interfere
We argue that the intentional and unconstitutional conduct set forth in the complaint does not allow for any claim of immunity by the defendants in this case.
Valerie Plame Wilson speaks next:
Much rather be continuing my career in the CIA, than be a plaintiff in a law suit.
Those persons who acted in this manner should answer for their shameful conduct in court.
Joe Wilson next:
Served my nation for a number of years, including several Ambassadorships. Last American diplomat to have contact with Saddam Hussein before the launching of Desert Storm.
Took two discrete missions to Niger to look into yellowcake allegations. Moreover, the US Ambassador and a Four Star Marine General also looked into the allegations, and came to the same conclusions.
Privately urged Administration to correct the false allegation in the State of the Union for months. When the Administration refused, Wilson exercised his right to speak out about governmental problems.
Goes through the fact pattern on what happened from the 16 words to the efforts toward "discrediting, punishing and seeking revenge" against the Wilsons.
Official abuse of power broke faith with these officials failing to uphold their oaths to the Constitution and their responsibilities and the public trust.
Now Wolf is taking questions.
Have there been threats to the Wilsons? Can’t comment.
Going to subpoena journalists? Not going to discuss strategy.
Can you explain the Bevins thing? Not going to discuss something that will likely be litigated.
(Lots of questions that are already answerable had people looked at the public record. SIGH)
Explain privacy questions? Once she was dragged into the public square by the Administration, that is a bell that cannot be unrung.
Expect motion for a stay from Libby’s criminal representation? Have to see what the motion says, and whether there is a need for a stay from the criminal prosecution.
Documents from Fitzgerald’s case as fair game for discovery? Anything on public record is important, and will likely be examined. We’ll take everything else step by step.
Will President be "indicted" with Cheney and Rove? (CHS: Um, hello, CIVIL action...) We’ll have to see what happens as we go forward in the discovery process.
Press conference has ended.
Favorite line of the presser: "Ambassador Wilson has a right to speak out without jeopardizing his wife." (h/t to bonzarella for catching that one, too!)
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Ned!!11!
Joe & Valerie!
And twins!
fitz
Wolf and Fitz!
Imagine! A Mother of twins getting kicked into the street by a Administration that got elected on being tough on terror?
Good for them, I am veryproud to be an American at this moment.
Thanks Joe and Valerie,we’ll be with you all the way.
I have been waiting for this toplay out since the oped in the Times.
OT-I can beleive (altho I should by now) that Liberman et all are so confused over who is leading his opposition and who is following. Its the Ct voters leading-on line or off line. There is no other conspiracy than the one of voters exercising their right to have a representative govt.
Hey Joe-you don’t represent anyone other than yourself very well.
no vendettas-no conspiracies-no ideology issues-you just don’t represent the people.
open your eyes and grow up.
and
FITZ!! (my hero)
WOOHOO, mucho grist for FDL Legal Dept and a fiesta for the rest of us for as far as the eye can see!
I am disgusted that C-span in Fairfax Co VA–suburban DC–is showing a weight loss telecommercial. MSNBC shows bully Bolton coincidentally having his own news announcement at 10am. I mean what are the chances.
Thank heavens for streaming. Valerie and Joe look great, serious, and determined.
We know who the real terrists are.
The loonbaughs EX heffa Kagan had that look on her face like she smelled shit, as John King was reading us Rovers talking points.
I just watched Valerie and Joe.
Classy.
A sentence began “The Wilsons dont what their civil suit in any way to interfere…”; with what?
I wonder whether CNNMSRNC will even put the Wilson story into rotation, or will bury it?
You know, I’d really appreciate it if CNN and MSNBC would SHUT UP and let me listen to those speaking at the press conference, instead of bringing on their “experts” — who invariably have their own agendas — to step all over whatever it is that’s being said.
-S
OT -
Zennurse, I have a couple of pics I think you’ll like, if I can get them to you.
T-
I’m also very glad I don’t watch TV. I can just imagine all the trash talk that’s going on right now, and I don’t need to hear it. They should be talking about what was done to this public servant, not tearing the case apart the minute it gets filed. They have every right to file and present their case, no matter who the defendants are. I can’t imagine Wolf would have brought them this far if he didn’t think they had a good chance. And Joe and Valerie are not dummies out for revenge and nothing else; they fully recognize the importance of this suit in all its ramifications.
Olbermann has the Wilsons Council on tonight. He will cover it. tweety has Coultergeist on, who I am sure will trash it.
What Strategerie said
T-
oh, yeah? Um, not online, huh?
Strategerie 15 — please save us all from cable news “experts.”
Thanks, Christy. Great coverage.
Did I hear that a paper somewhere fired Coulter?
CTBob- interfere with Fitz’ case.
One note: remember that we can have an impact on the Lamont/Lieberman race.
The Wilson matter, while utterly captivating, is something that we are for the most part bystanders to.
For those who are able, I urge them to continue to keep focused on helping Lamont, rather than get too pulled into the Wilson matter at this point in the critical weeks before the primary in CT.
I realize we can all do more than one thing at a time, but it is even better to focus like a laser on the important things that we can control rather than on things we cannot.
Jane at 21 — that was as fast as my fingers could type this morning. Whew!
Yes, zenn — the Cedar Rapids (IA) paper did — too many wingnuts finally complained about her. *g*
Coulter on Tweety? I’m embarassed for him. Really. A hundred years from now they’re going to look back on him as an historic national joke for the parade of freaks he’s passed off as legitimate comentators.
I hope he’s not thinking he’ll wind up with some “great man” legacy.
Zen -
Not that I’m aware of. Just an e-mail w/ some pics that originated in Bluegrass country (a little Barbaro therapy).
JH, we can only hope that a century from now, this whole era will seem a grotesque aberration.
Aw, c’mon, wxyz, the presser ended two minutes ago! Jane is practically sitting in Ned’s lap and fdl has raised more money than anyone for him. I think we can allow ourselves more than 10 minutes of celebration, don’t you? Trust me, nobody’s forgetting about CT.
Jane#27 my sentiments exactly….they have been advert. her appearance since early morn. A real disgrace…..But nothing tweety does surprises me anymore.
Speaking of Barbaro, the news is a tad better this morning.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponlin.....nted=print
Olberman is going to have Erwin Chemerinsky on this evening, and I cannot wait. He’s a professor at Duke, and is serving as Of Counsel for the Wilsons, and he’s one of the finest Con Law scholars in the country at the moment. Should be an exceptional interview. (And as he teaches at Duke, I’d like to see the wingnuts try to brand him as some sort of know-nothing, since it is not only a fine law school, but a conservative one at that.)
Zennurse 23 - ah, thank you.
zennurse is right. I think we all have the capacity to walk and chew gum at the same time….Unlike some presidents we know!~…LMAO
Christy, change “conduct Saddam Hussein” to “contact Saddam Hussein”
OT– Security Council meeting right now on Israel/Lebanon…
let’s see what Bolton and his mustache do today.
T-
I think you’re thinking of Mary, not me. She’s the one who’s into Barbaro and has horses, IIRC. But I’d love to see them. capetannyann at yahoo dot com.
My entire family was from Lexington, though.
Watching Bush in Russia, strutting on the runway and doing his cute gay little hand-wavy thing. Does he have a clue what’s going on in the ME?
MSNBC has coverage now.
neuro– he doesn’t care/it’s part of the plan.
pick one or both.
That little flutter-wave of his always makes me wish his stupid hand would just fall off. Gawd, what a visceral disgustment GeeDub is!
MSNBC: lawsuit an “annoying distraction” for the white house?
Watertiger pares it down, she’s so eloquent.
the basics
CNN Headline News just covered the Wilson/Plame lawsuit including Valerie’s statement.
Christy,
How much can this suit by the Wilsons hurt Fitzgerald’s inquiries? Or can it?
Franco and zennurse,
I agree with both of you! I will be following the developments in Plamegate with rapt attention as well.
I just wanted to get out ahead of this and remind everyone that there is something staring us in the face that we can have a tremendous real impact on: the Ned Lamont campaign.
I realize that there is little risk that we will lose focus, but being the overly cautious type I wanted to weigh in regardless.
What take can we get on the ability of this case to get past motion for dissmissal/summary judgment? I heard Odonnell on Countdown say it was weak but then Dean also said it was strong bc it was based on the Gov’t’s evidence and investigation.
The MSNBC bobble-head girl of the day just asked Jim VandeHei whether this suit is “just another annoying distraction” for the WH or whether it has some substance. WTF?!? Now she just said “Do they look at this case as a way to keep this in the headlines?” VandeHei says the WH has much, much bigger problems than this suit — quite frankly everyone is talking about corruption allegations about Republicans and whether they will lose elections in the Fall, and enormous foreign policy crises simultaneously.
Looks like the pool boys fax machine must have been broken this morning
Christy-thanks for the heads up about Olberman tonight. I hope you’re blogging about this over the weekend. I also hope Amb. Wilson slow roasts all of their butts over an open fire for the rest of this administration’s term. I’d send them the same amount as my cable bill every month if they’d broadcast it, too.
Ohh, I’m feeling deliciously evil today.
Good deal. Lets hope the Wilsons help clean out the abscess of putrified infection that is this administration.
neuro-
like Whitewater and Jones were an “annoying distraction” for Clinton?
just turn it off, you can do it, it’s ok, nobody will die. I promise. It’s poison, really, those people want to hurt your brain.
Christy ….is it me or did MSNBC hire a new slew of dumb Bobble-heads for the mid-term elections?
Zen-
Something in the Toobz for you.
“The bell that cannot be unrung” PRIVACY.
Word used at least 3 times I counted.
What a novel concept. For NOC CIA, or the rest of the citizenry.
Good one, imho.
Christy,
From one of us with only time to lurk and read (at least at present - kids, work) thanks bigtime for your dedication and always-informative legal analysis.
Israeli ambass on msnbc - lots of big tough talk from everyone - not a diplomat in the bunch…
we are in serious trouble here…
grayslady at 46 — I would look for a request for a stay on the civil suit by Libby’s criminal counsel (to not do so would be highly questionable to protect their client’s rights, I would argue). The civil suit had to be filed to meet the deadline on statute of limitations, but a stay can be issued which puts it on hold until the criminal case is completed. And, if that appears to be necessary to the Wilsons in terms of concluding the criminal investigation, I would look for them to not fight such a stay too hard. (That’s just my opinion, but I know that they have both said, and Joe has said publicly, that they are very supportive of the criminal process moving forward.)
Thanks for that professional opinion, zennurse. You are right. I have better things to do. Thanks.
Olberman is going to have Erwin Chemerinsky on this evening, and I cannot wait. He’s a professor at Duke, and is serving as Of Counsel for the Wilsons, and he’s one of the finest Con Law scholars in the country at the moment. Should be an exceptional interview. (And as he teaches at Duke, I’d like to see the wingnuts try to brand him as some sort of know-nothing, since it is not only a fine law school, but a conservative one at that.)
They’ll take a look at his surname and try to figure out clever ways of telegraphing “He’s a Jewy Jew!” to their anti-semitic base, without actually coming right out and saying it.
Forget the “Wilson suit”…I think the “Plame gown” looks much hotter! ;)
I’ll watch KO tonight for Chemerinsky, but since MSNBC makes me feel as befouled as Faux, this will be a major exception. Hope my teevy dudn’t break in protest.
Thought the presser was dignified and to the point – stating only the facts, omitting the speculation, giving very little fodder to the usual talking heads to make something of. Smart move. Reminded me of the “all-business” (which is as it should be) conduct of Fitzgerald and his team. Aside from being the right way to deal with it, it ends up making the other side look as bad as they actually are.
Re: Coulter on Tweety: My first thought was that’s probably where he was thinking he’d like her to be. *g* Remember the little survey he took one Friday night, asking whether the men on the panel found her attractive? I suspect he invited her on because he thinks she’s hot looking (which should really just end all doubt about which head this guy thinks with).
P.S. Last year, Bush played the guitar while New Orleans drowned; maybe this year, he’ll play an actual fiddle, while the Middle East goes up in flames.
Wonder if the networks will carry the ambassador from Lebanon or anyone else…
you know, just to be fair and balanced.
The Israeli amb. must have had w’s speechwriter prepare his diatribe.
Christy,
Isn’t it true that one benefit of the civil case, for us, will be increased information? Unlike Fitz, the Wilsons’ attorneys may be willing to publicly disclose some information that comes out in discovery–can you imagine their deposition of Cheney? Or do you think the defendants will be able to clamp down some kind of broad national security BS confidentiality order on the whole civil case?
Great work Christy, as always!
Israeli amb. - “syria and iran…. dirty bombs… syria and iran…”
lotus- just make sure you keep it on mute until you see KO’s face and then hit off when he says “however many days and counting since mission accomplished” so as not to get any Scarborough on you.
Anne#64….no Clusterfukkk gave up music, but he will be talking about that PIG he ate for a year..
Strategerie #15
Amen!
and Bright house internets went out here at the same time…ah, but cspan3 kept me from loosing it completely.
All we need is to find some of them yellow cakes in Niger heh heh, send sem out on the next plame heh heh.
I can’t imagine the Wilson suit won’t be stayed — and may not rev up for real for many months … thereby producing excellent background music for ‘08. Heh.
jest another axis of evil speech from the ambassador. weird to hear his rhetoric on one side of the screen and the other filled with burning, bombed, destroyed Lebanon.
Thanks for the tips, Dru! MUCH obliged.
Israeli amb. “we are bombing Lebanon to save Lebanon”
Franco - yeah, I heard about that. Didn’t see Bush talking about the pig, but Rachel Maddow on Air America this morning said that when Bush came to the podium, the group was thinking he’d be making some serious remarks, and he started off with the pig thing.
What’s the next level beyond really, totally and utterly embarrrassed?
neuro at 66 — absolutely. This will all be ont he public record, other than national security matters issues which will likely be argued to be kept secret (as well they should, in a lot of instances, and I’m sure that Valerie Wilson would also agree on that, given what she did for a living for years). But the conduct of the various Administration officials, in terms of any conspiracy allegations and their actions to effect the various efforts in the conspiracy — all public record from depositions to be filed in the courthouse.
Anne @ 77 -
“What’s the next level beyond really, totally and utterly embarrrassed?”
the next levels are ashamed and humiliated…
Watertiger pares it down, she’s so eloquent.
She tends to do that.
.
“strong a moving words”– (repeated it twice for good measure)– from the Israeli ambass according to the bobblehead on msnbc.
nobody else in the security council covered… even though Russia was up next. nothing to see here, move along.
“What’s the next level beyond really, totally and utterly embarrrassed?”
Dunno, Anne, but we can be sure that when we find it in the dictionary, GWB’s face is the accompanying illustration.
Oldcoastie
At what point does “mortified” kick in?
ah, cspan1 covering the sec council.
neurophius -
I believe we are very close to mortified…
Thanks for that, angie!
I also have to comment that it was a pleasure to see the obvious respect and love Ambassador Wilson has for his wife.
Very sweet.
-S
And I want to say for the record that the entire Middle East situation is not so easily discussed as a black/white/good/bad context. It is a huge swath of shades of gray on a lot of sides, and we will do best to understand a lot of the context of all the players — Israel, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, Iran, the US, the EU, Russia, etc., etc., if we look at the whole of the situation through the lens of how many different fingers are in the pie at once, and how difficult it is to tell one from the other from a far away viewpoint.
The Middle East has always been a difficult region, where surrogate political warfare has been played out through the centuries. And now is no different, except that George Bush is President and his foreign policy team, in my estimation, has been failing miserably at these challenges. And I fear that we are doomed to continue to fail unless and until they admit errors and begin to do things differently.
But there is no one side that is completely in the right on any of this — and everyone would do well to keep that in mind. That’s all I’m saying, as someone who has been watching and worrying about regional issues there for years and years.
So, can they stay just the Libby part, or is the whole case in “time out” for a few years until after the Libby pardon or lengthy appeal process?
Strategerie….he even poured her a fresh glass of H2O before she got up to speak!
John Dean has his synopsis modern conservatism called “The Thriumph of the Authoitarians” published in today’s Globe OpEd, running about 10 graphs.
http://www.boston.com/news/glo.....ritarians/
—–
Good to see some ‘common sense’ being published.
Strategerie at 87 — he lights up when he talks about her. It is awfully nice to see.
T- at 89 — There are a lot of options on the table for a judge in terms of length of stay, but generally it would be until the end of a criminal trial. The record is set at that point for appeal, so it likely wouldn’t go beyond a trial timetable — but that’s just my best guess, if indeed a stay is requested.
Christy@59,
Thanks. Makes sense to me. Unfortunately, one problem with extended time lawsuits is that the further away in time from the actual occurrences, the greater the (legitimate) reliance on the “I can’t remember” testimony. Makes it difficult if the Wilsons get to the deposition stage.
OT, Weird Division:
Raw Story: New Orleans bails on Democratic Party… Developing…
NYPost: KT BROTHER: EVIL SIS LIED ON ‘DAD ABUSE’
July 13, 2006 — ALBANY - The brother of GOP Senate candidate Kathleen Troia “KT” McFarland accused his sister yesterday of being “evil” and he vehemently denied her charges that their father was abusive. […]
After hearing it said so many times that it’s love, or power and money that “makes the world go ’round”, I came to believe those axiomatic, paradoxical, and somewhat mutually exclusive parables. But I would offer up the idea that, at least, in the realm of political chicanery and sophistry, as practiced in the case of Plame and Wilson, etc., that it is ‘traction’ that makes the world go around. The ability to foment traction. That singular devilish trait of which Rove, Cheney and Joseph Goebbels (Hitler’s propaganda wizard) are history’s undisputed masters.
when keith covered the story last night on countdown he referred to the defendants rove, cheney, libby and the other un-named nine as “the gang of 13″. it put that nice criminal tiant on the whole bunch.
Oklahoma kiddo
I’d like to see the Wilsons get some traction on Rove’s face with a bulldozer.
Blech — Moustache up in the Sec Council. I’d sooo much rather listen to those elegant women’s voices doing translation.
Oh good lord.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/15034557.htm
Dow Jones down 100 again. Heckuva job, preznit codpiece.
ew
promo o n Hardballz tonght” Ann coulter tell Chris Matthews wht we need president chimpy now more that ever”
lotus 99 - “moustache up” - FOTFL. I can’t bear to the sight of him & my comical little pooch Buddha Blue can’t stand the sound of his voice. Thanks for watching so we don’t have to. ;~)
Interesting, Christy, that “poison pill” in last post (nice compilation of material, BTW). My curiosity is thoroughly piqued since I’m only familiar with poison pills as deterrents to hostile takeovers.
I had been thinking more along the lines of a secondary benefit as an independent stalking horse for prosecution. ;-)
Bonus!
In this difficult time for the Wilsons, I’m sure the support they recieve from Jane, Christy and the rest of the FDL community gives them comfort and strenght knowing they are not alone in this.
OT: on the civil suit, wrt Israel Lebanon
Not trying to thread-jack, Raimondo’s analysis excertped in blockquotes below is pretty succint.
I can’t help thinking that there is a desperation to the current offensive war being conducted against Lebanon, as though it is being done to hasten the conflict, for fear that the support provided by Bush-NeoCon administration is on a short-timer.
from http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=9301
Franco 54
They sure did. In fact, they got rid of the only male on their daytime lineup when they didn’t renew Randy Myers’ contract.
Sure, he had slightly runaway-bride eyes, but he was clear and well-spoken and relatively even-handed.
Speaking as a gurrll, I kind of like male anchors. Something about the male voice I like. That would naturally exclude Blitzer, of course, but in general, a reasonable, intelligent male voice is easy on my ears.
I kind of liked Alison Stewart until she started affecting that Republican Female Sneer, first brought to us by Christy Todd Whitman, and seen often on the mugs of Monica Crowley, Daryn Kagan and most other Repugnant mouthpieces. Kitty Pilgram has adopted it, and now Alison Stewart.
Do they think it makes them look cooly aloof with a soupcon of ironic?
Ladies, Jon Stewart is the master of irony. You are simply a tool.
OT
Anyone in our group affected by the wildfires in CA?? I hope we are all safe.
grayslady “further away in time from the actual occurrences, the greater the (legitimate) reliance on the “I can’t remember” testimony.”
The nice thing about this one is that they will all have just been through the Libby trial and there is a lot of evidence and testimony there to refer to and refresh their memories. I don’t think they will get away with I don’t remember.
I watched 10 minutes of CNN the other day while washed my floor and there was aperson called Kyra whose frost job looked like she had a white spider covering her head. She was also wearing strange frosted lipstick which made her lips look swollen. Really. Unfortunate. Look.
Rayne, I think the poison pill is coming in the breakdown of the filing.
It’s another beatiful day here in the NW. I have work to do but will pop in occasionally for more excellent coverage. Keep up the good work!
zennurse says: “Rayne, I think the poison pill is coming in the breakdown of the filing.”
July 14th, 2006 at 8:28 am
In what way? Please elaborate.
I met Erwin during the OJ trial. Very nice guy, and (obviously) very smart.
Everyone remember what William Gaddis wrote in A Frolic of His Own “Justice? That’s for the next world. In this one you have The Law. . .the rest is Opera.”
Thanks, Christy, for the nice summary and update. It’s hard to keep up with what’s going on when I am really supposed to be doing some other things…..
Christy,
As always, a great job on analysis. Helps me feel that with this civil suit, the alleged criminals will have some price to pay. Justice may yet be served.
By way of Raw Story:
http://www.boston.com/news/nat.....e_scandal/
Well, the Spec Pros has pretty much known all along that Wilsons were going to sue; and he’s known their time frame. I don’t see where anything going on won’t be something he hasn’t factored in - I’m sure he’s factored in things that are much less likely to occur than this.
What I do see is that he has, in the Libby case when they were requesting info on *evidence showing there was not a conspiracy* put on the record the fact that there was a coordinated effort to discredit the Wilsons. He’s really made that pretty darn clear and done so in the public portion of his filings.
His assertions that his evidence shows coordinated efforts to discredit the Wilsons - well, that sure won’t hurt their attempts to get info, will it?
Um…Wilson went on two trips to Niger?
Stephen - *G* thanks for the phone jam story link.
Maybe they need to get Discovery and Court TV to start a new channel through the elections at least — Civil Discovery.
zennurse@109,
Good point. Back-to-back lawsuits makes it more difficult to forget details.
In the Chicago Trib story that Christy links to, the concluding section is do-not-miss: