This May Be Why Libby Mentioned the Connected Roots

I hadn't put all the pieces together until I read this interesting posting by Jane Hamsher on Arianna Huffington's blog, but it makes sense now. One of the befuddling questions that currently exist is why Scooter Libby wrote such an unbelievably stupid letter to Judith Miller that alone may get him indicted for obstruction of justice.

Hamsher pulls together some facts that I hadn't considered before. In Fitzgerald's letter to Libby about whether Miller remained in jail due to a miscommunication over Libby's waiver, Fitzgerald indicates that he would welcome Libby, if he so desired, reiterating his waiver to Miller again. That I knew. What I didn't realize until I did a reading of the full letter was that Fitzgerald explicitly told Libby that (a) Fitzgerald didn't need to be copied or ever see any letter he sent to Miller and that (b) Fitzgerald would NOT view Libby contacting Miller to reconfirm his waiver as obstruction (with the important caveat that Libby not discuss the substance of what her testimony might be).

As a result, Libby sent his letter to Miller, without copying Fitzgerald. Indeed, Hamsher points out that Fitzgerald only saw the letter as a result of a leak to the news media -- he wasn't provided a copy by either Libby or Miller.

I'll add another step to the analysis that Hamsher hasn't done, but which supports Hamsher's conclusion. Libby's lawyer wrote back to Fitzgerald on September 16 (contained in the .pdf above) and told him that he would reach out to Miller's lawyer again and provide him a copy of the very letter he was sending to Fitzgerald. However, there is NO mention that Libby himself had sent a letter to Miller directly the day before.

One other piece that I don't think has been discussed very much -- in the last sentence of Miller attorney Floyd Abrams' response to Libby's attorney, Abrams notes that Libby's "recent personal call and his personal letter to her are certainly helpful in that regard." Umm, "recent personal call"? Well, we know that Libby was over the top in his letter to Miller, so god knows what he might have said on the telephone? Here's what the New York Times piece said about the phone call:

When that could not be arranged, she settled for a 10-minute jailhouse
conference call on Sept. 19 with Mr. Libby, while two of her lawyers and one of
Mr. Libby's listened in.

Ms. Miller said she was persuaded. "I mean, it's like the tone of the
voice," she said. "When he talked to me about how unhappy he was that I was in
jail, that he hadn't fully understood that I might have been going to jail just
to protect him. He had thought there were other people whom I had been
protecting. And there was kind of like an expression of genuine concern and
sorrow."

Ms. Miller said she then "cross-examined" Mr. Libby. "When I pushed him
hard, I said: 'Do you really want me to testify? Are you sure you really want me
to testify?' He said something like: 'Absolutely. Believe it. I mean it.' "

It appears that Libby took Fitzgerald's reassurances about obstruction and the fact that Fitzgerald didn't need to see the letter as an opening to push the envelope. His comment about what other reporters had said about Libby's involvement with the leak and his now-infamous "roots are connected" comment definitely crossed the line of what Fitzgerald told him was permitted and likely will lead Miller to be the one visiting Libby in prison soon.
- posted by Joshua @ 8:40 PM