Court rules that Libby has right to CIA documents. Is this GOOD or BAD?

[Atman]

I know it's been posted about in the past, but I honestly don't recall what the ramifications are. Is this good, because it will reveal lot of ugly stuff about the BFEE, or is it bad because it will cause the case to be thrown out because Bush won't actually turn over anything? Or whatever...pros and cons, please, DUers...

[Kagemusha]

1. I thought it was really bad until I saw some details.

The judge is only allowing stuff from one week and is saying the CIA can summarize and that the information will not necessarily be seen by a jury or the public depending on what it is. The CIA had argued that even the topic headers themselves were classified. Even though the judge tried to be reasonable in his own mind, there is still every reason to believe that executive privilege will be claimed, though the CIA at least has far, far, far less of a job in looking at the one week involved and saying if there's anything where even the topic cited would be dangerous to national security than looking at the 277 or whatever libby was asking for.

[Zen Democrat]

2. It will delay the trial for a very long time.

[spindrifter]

3. It's basically good if you want to

see I.Lewis in court. The judge has so-called "split the baby." On the one hand, Scrotum can claim he was under a lot of pressure because he had to be up on umpteen thousand serious threats to the well-being of the American people (i.e., the number and/or general topics discussed in the daily briefings). On the other hand all the topics and the real meat of the matters will be sanitized, as it isn't getting turned over. Splitting the baby in this case will keep Libby from pursuing his real strategery: appealing denial of his request for the PDB's. On the other hand, what he is taking from Fitzg. is minor--and the government is not really going to have a strong case for appealing what they have to give up. This was masterful BenchCraft.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

4. Bad for Libby

I think they were trying to pull something, thinking that if they weren't allowed to have the documents, they couldn't prove their case, so the judge would have to let him off.

didn't work. :)

[BillZBubb]

5. It's not clear at this point.

Libby's lawyers will insist on seeing everything they can possibly tie to the case. They will want to see it in it's entirety. The security agencies will want to scrub it heavily--they'll be pressured to do so by the White House. So, a judge again will have to determine if Libby is getting enough info for a proper defense. The case could be dismissed if their is a standoff over classified data.

That's what Libby and the White House are working on.