Plame lawyer plans to force Cheney, Rove testimony

[sabra]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N15401689.htm

Plame lawyer plans to force Cheney, Rove testimony

LOS ANGELES, Aug 15 (Reuters) - A lawyer plans to use a legal precedent that allowed President Bill Clinton to be sued while in office to force Vice President Dick Cheney and presidential adviser Karl Rove to testify in a lawsuit brought by former CIA operative Valerie Plame and her husband.

California attorney Joseph Cotchett said he will ask a federal court to order Cheney, his ex-chief of staff Lewis "Scooter" Libby and Rove to testify in depositions about their role in disclosing her classified status.

...

Cotchett, who took over as trial counsel in Plame's case on Tuesday, said legal precedent for whether Cheney and the others could claim legal immunity in the case comes, in part, from Paula Jones' sexual harassment case against Clinton.

...

Cotchett, a longtime Democratic Party supporter and legal adviser, is best known for winning a $3.3 billion jury verdict in a case involving the failure of Lincoln Savings and Loan in the 1980s.

Court documents show that Cheney has hired Emmet Flood, a lawyer from Clinton's impeachment defense team, to represent him in the Plame case.

[Lindacooks]

1. Good. Get the bastards under oath.

About time. I've never seen such a bunch of slimy individuals who manage to duck testifying under oath.

[tinfoilinfor2005]

8. Do you think taking an oath has any meaning for these criminals?

We can only hope that the good guy lawyers are more skillful than the bad guy lawyers so that they can prove perjury, because there will be A LOT of that going on.

[Lindacooks]

11. I'm not worried about that at this point.

I just want to get them under oath first. That hasn't happened yet - can you believe that??

[tinfoilinfor2005]

14. Wasn't Rove under oath to Fitzpatrick?

Not that he didn't lie out of his ass, but I think GJ testimony has to be under oath, no?

[midnight]

19. Thank You Valerie.

Don't let them get away with it.

[exlrrp]

35. It has meaning to US!

what that means is that they can be punished for lying, instead of the way they usually get away with it. The Bush administration assiduously avoids being under oath for just that reason.
Remember in reecent hearings when the Repubs wouldn't let Gonzales testify under oath--thats why. Instead, Gonzo got to say anything he wanted without consequences.
Remembr the way the Repubs wouldn't let their oilcompany CEO buddies be put under oath? Same thing--they get to say anything the want wihtout consequesnces
Thats what you get in a Republican "accountability" administration. Put the bastids under oath so we can get them fr perjury the same as they did Clinton

[stepnw1f]

36. It May Not Mean Much to Them

which I assume as well, but to me and many others hear it's a very good thing. The truth comes out more and more into the public sphere when stuff like this occurs.

[hippiechick]

2. oh please oh please oh please oh please ?!?!?

O8)

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. BWAHAHAHAHAHA!

Plame's lawyer is using the precedent that came out of the Paula Jones case, instigated and managed by the Republican slime machine, to go after Cheney and Rove! Ain't karma a bitch?

[panader0]

4. I hope it happens quick. I hope Fitz does something soon too.

We need some big boost before Nov.

[MissWaverly]

13. No Delay allowed in Paula Jones case

The Supremes definitely stated that the President was not entitled automatically to special treatment that was a civil case, a misdemeanor and they wouldn't even let him delay it.

"The fact that a federal court's exercise of its traditional Article III
jurisdiction may significantly burden the time and attention of the Chief
Executive is not sufficient to establish a violation of the Constitution...
It is settled law that the seperation-of-powers doctrine does not bar
every act of jurisdiction over the President of the United States...
If the Judiciary may severely burden the Executive Branch by reviewing the
legality of the President's official conduct...it must follow that the federal
courts have the power to determine the legality of his unoffical conduct..
We therefore hold that the doctrine of seperation of powers does not require
federal courts to stay all private actions against the President until
he leaves office."

Page 41-42 No Island of Sanity by Vincent Bugliosi, Paula Jones v Bill Clinton: The
Supreme Court on Trial, Ballantine Books

[tabasco]

5. IMO, this is the only reason for the lawsuit.

Have Cheney & Co. explain why compromising an important counter-terror operation was part of their official duties.

Why did you compromise national security, Mr. Cheney?

I hope this will be very interesting.

If the Clinton precedent makes it happen, it will just be that much more ironic.

[Richard Steele]

6. Never gonna happen.

When has anyone in this administration EVER paid attention to
rules or laws or court orders?

Remember those Abu Ghraib pics the Court ORDERED them to release
last year? They ignored that, and no one said a word.

Cheney will NOT testify in any court. He is ABOVE the law;
and has been for some time.

[madame defarge]

9. And even if they do testify, they'll lie...

because that's all they knows how to do.

[disndat]

34. Yes, but

could this make a big stink before Nov '06? We can only try. What is there to lose? I hear that some Republicans running for re-election in November are pretending they don't know Bush. We move forward.

[Richard Steele]

41. Yes, it could do that. Every little bit helps.

And BTW: Welcome to DU! :hi:

[Demeter]

7. Payback Is Such A Bitch

and these bitches have been asking for it for decades. This definitely calls for popcorn.

[I_Make_Mistakes]

10. I cannot answer that question, I plead National Security!

So, what will be the out of court settlement offered? I don't think the Wilson's are worried about any financial settlement, which will floor the DICK, because money seems to be his only way of dealing with problems.

[rodeodance]

12. past time to wipe that cocky smile from his face.

[Canuckistanian]

15. Say, didn't Ann Coulter work on the Paula Jones case?

You could almost say that the precedents in that case could bring down a sitting Veep.

Why does she hate America?

[tanyev]

16. Petard. Hoist.

Spray.

:spray:

[elehhhhna]

17. "Mau! Mau!" I can hear it in my dreams....!

[seemslikeadream]

18. Lincoln Savings and Loan - Neil Bush

http://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/ethicalperspectives/corporatefraud.html

Bush's Role in Corporate Fraud
By Willliam Black and James Galbraith

President George W. Bush has reassured us that ''From the antitrust laws of the 19th century to the S&L reforms of recent times, America has tackled financial problems when they appeared.'' But the savings & loan reforms came seven years and 150 billion taxpayer dollars late. Nor did that problem merely ''appear.'' It was created by a deregulation bill in 1982 overseen at that time by Vice President George Bush. From 1981 to 1988, the Reagan-Bush administration covered up the S&L debacle. It forced reductions in S&L examiners and fought against the top federal regulator, Ed Gray, who sounded the alarm. Charles Keating, the felon who drove Lincoln Savings into the most expensive S&L failure in history ($3 billion) considered Vice President Bush an ally in his efforts to force Gray from office. Only after he was safely elected president did Bush propose to reregulate the S&L industry in 1989.

Meanwhile, Neil Bush, private citizen, was getting a ''loan'' from a business partner. The partner invested the loan for the president's son with the agreement that if the investment succeeded Neil would get all the profits and repay the debt, but if it failed he would not have to repay. Neil knew that this business partner was not creditworthy and yet was borrowing over $100 million from Silverado S&L, where Neil was a member of the board. Neil did not warn Silverado that the borrower was not creditworthy. When Silverado failed, the Office of Thrift Supervision proposed a minor enforcement action against Neil, which the Bush administration then attempted to block.

George W. Bush, private citizen, emulated his brother Neil. He became rich through a buyout of his interest in the Texas Rangers at a huge profit. How did he purchase that interest in the first place? He got a very large loan from a very friendly bank. How was the bank able to justify the loan? If at all, because of the market's valuation of Bush's shares in Harken. Why was he on Harken's board of directors and also a well-paid consultant? Because his name was Bush. Why was he able to sell his Harken shares for a profit? Because Harken committed a financial fraud that hid real losses and created fictional income.

What was the nature of that fraud? It was a variant on the Enron and Lincoln Savings frauds. Harken insiders formed a entity which ''purchased'' Harken's bad assets for a grossly excessive price. But Harken financed almost all of the sale. If the bad assets had stayed on the books, Harken would have had to report severe losses, threatening its survival and causing its stock values to plummet. George W. Bush is a wealthy man today because his business friends were willing to stoop to fraud to make him rich.

George W. Bush is in trouble, in part, because of his clumsy coverups of this fraud. Knowing of the severe problems at Harken, Bush sold around 200,000 shares of stock for around $4 a share. (We do not know who purchased Bush's shares, but was it the ever-friendly Harvard Management Corp., which had started buying Harken when Bush joined it and had, by 1990, become one of its largest holders?) He then failed to file required notice of these sales. When challenged on that point, he first claimed that the SEC ''lost'' his filing. His second story was to blame the failure on Harken's lawyers. But that won't wash. Bush was selling his own stock, and was therefore personally responsible for filing the documents.

Bush claims to see nothing wrong about Harken's frauds. However, the goal was to hide real losses and to book fictional income. The people who made the decision and the board of directors stood to gain directly from the fraud, and Bush did benefit—enormously. Bush is also wrong on the accounting. This was a deliberately complicated transaction for the same reason that Enron's and Lincoln Savings's partnerships were complicated. Complexity makes it hard for regulators to discern fraud. While the transaction was complicated, the underlying fraud is so well known that the accounting rules governing such transactions are not vague. There was no ''honest dispute'' about accounting rules. There was a deliberate fraud structured in a complicated manner in order to claim that it wasn't really deliberate.

[Lasher]

40. Money for Nothing

In June, 1977 George W. Bush formed his own oil drilling company, Arbusto Energy, in Midland, Tex. James R. Bath, a friend and neighbor, was used to funnel money from Osama bin Laden's brother, Salem bin Laden, to set up George W. Bush in the oil business, according to The Wall Street Journal and other reputable sources.

In 1982 Arbusto was hurting financially so Bush decided to take the company public but needed a cash infusion first. Philip Uzielli, a New York investor and friend of James Baker III purchased a 10% stake in Arbusto even though the entire company was valued at less than $400,000. Bush changed the name of Arbusto to Bush Exploration and took the company public hoping to raise 6 million dollars but managed to raise only 1.14 million. Within two years, it was clear that Bush Exploration was in trouble again.

The 50 investors, who were "mainly friends of my uncle" in Junior's own words, put in $4.7 million and lost most of it. Junior claimed that investors "did pretty good," but Bush family friend Russell Reynolds told the Dallas Morning News: "The bottom line was there were problems, and it didn't work out very well. I think we got maybe 20 cents on the dollar."

As Arbusto neared collapse, Spectrum 7 Energy Corporation bought it in September 1984.

In walked bailout number three in the persons of Cincinnati investors, William DeWitt Jr. and Mercer Reynolds III. Heading up an oil exploration company called Spectrum 7, DeWitt and Mercer contacted George W. about a merger with Bush Exploration. For Bush and his struggling company, the decision wasn't a hard one to make. In February 1984, George W. agreed to a merger with Spectrum 7 in which Dewitt and Reynolds would each control 20.1 percent and George W. would own 16.3 percent. George W. was named chairman and CEO of Spectrum 7, which brought him an annual salary of $75,000.

By the end of 1985, Spectrum's fortunes had reversed. With oil prices falling, the company was losing money and on the verge of collapse. To save the firm, Bush began negotiations to sell Spectrum 7 to Harken Energy, a large Dallas-based energy firm owned mostly by billionaire George Soros, Saudi businessman Abdullah Taha Baksh and the Harvard Management Corporation.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0210/S00178.htm

Harken's CEO admitted he bought Spectrum 7 only to get Bush on his company's board of directors.

[aggiesal]

20. Plame lawyer plans to force Cheney, Rove testimony

LOS ANGELES, Aug 15 (Reuters) - A lawyer plans to use a legal precedent that allowed President Bill Clinton to be sued while in office to force Vice President Dick Cheney and presidential adviser Karl Rove to testify in a lawsuit brought by former CIA operative Valerie Plame and her husband. ...

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N15401689.htm

Let's make sure that Cheney is holding hands King George.
I'll bet they ask to not testify under oath.

[truthisfreedom]

21. this is going to increase Ambien sales in DC for the next few months.

lotsa nervous nellies.

[midnight]

22. Let's use that legal precedent ASAP.

[Recursion]

23. I *knew* the RWers would eventually regret Jones v. Clinton

Cheers to that!

[On the Road]

26. My Thoughts Exactly

They are so short-sighted. Now watch Fitzgerald go after lawyer-client confientiality as long as the lawyer's on the federal payroll.

[tblue37]

28. Yep.

Like with that unitary executive crap. They clearly believe there will never be another Dem president, thanks to election fraud, but there is just this much outside chance that the anti-Bush/Cheney/Repub vote will be too huge to steal--and there is also the Mexican example to rally the people.

They could still end up biting temselves their own asses eventually.

[stepnw1f]

37. Cheers Indeed! (nt)

[rwenos]

49. CLASSIC Backfire

There are none so blind as they who will not see.

Through my hate-clenched teeth, I laughed my ass off when the Pubs went after Clinton for womanizing. Like none of the Pub Congressmen had ever philandered! What a bunch of dummies! Then Gingrich and Livingstone had to resign.

They REALLY think the rules only apply to us, not them.

This is CLASSIC justice, Greek-tragedy style. RW'ers will tear their eyes out, after "knowing" their mothers and killing their fathers.


Revenge is a dish best served cold. Wonder if Cotchett needs lawyer-help.

[Dystopian]

24. Fantastic news! k/r

[napi21]

25. Ahhhh, becareful what you fight for Pugs!

You thought you won with Clinton didn't you? Hmmm, did ya feel that? It was big bite in your.......

[ThsMchneKilsFascists]

27. It's things like this that make me believe in karma

Sometimes you're the windshield and sometimes you're the bug.

[eridani]

29. Hey, mods@

So where's our schadenfreude icon?

[lonestarnot]

31. Sweet irony.

[stop the bleeding]

30. It is amazing how things can come back full circle in life

to end biting you in arse


Bwahhahahhhaa

[DinahMoeHum]

38. It is called Karma.

n/t

[Lowell]

32. If nothing else

this could tie the administration in knots until their term is over. Their legal wrangling handicapped the Clinton administration and so much time and energy was spent fighting the constant attacks that they never got to implement their agenda during his last term. Lets tie these bastards up in court until they leave. If they are kept busy fighting for their existance they will not have the time to continue destroying our country.

[ItsTheMediaStupid]

43. We don't have the LimbaughSphere echoing all the charges

Every leak from Ken Starr and every word uttered by RW assholes was repeated on the radio and by TV talking heads ad nauseum.

This case won't get that kind of attention, b/c the broadcast media is owned by the same corporations that own the administration.

LimbaughSphere: (noun) Radio and television echo chamber built to repeat right wing lies and to amplify the effectiveness of negative campaigning.

[Harry Monroe]

33. Since when does this Administration pay attention to "legal niceties"

All Bushco has to do is rustle up another signing statement that states he is above the law and all this will go away for Darth Sidious and Darth Vader. Just watch. We've got a virtual dictator in the White House now, unless the Dems begin to grow a set of balls and challenge them on every single illegal move this Administration makes.

[bpj1962]

45. Civil Cases

This is not about signing statements. Cheney, Rove, and Libby will have no choice but to appear under oath before a jury. There is no 5th amendment protection in a civil case. The burden of proof is not as great for a guilty charge and the jury does not have to be in complete agreement. If they don't appear they will be charged with contempt of court and I have no doubt that the last thing these guys want is a perp walk photo. I am sure that Cheney believes he has done nothing wrong at all. He reminds of the character Jack Nicholson played in "A Few Good Men", he is so sure of himself and his absolute arrogance that he never sees the punch coming until it is to late.

[Harry Monroe]

46. My bad...

...I realize that those unconstitutional signing statements apply to the laws that Congress passes and the Chimp wishes to ignore, taking the erroneous stand that he is "above the law" like some king or dictator.

I completely agree about Cheney. He thinks that we "Can't handle the truth!!" in his own perceived reality. Karma can be a bitch; he'll get his commupance soon I hope.

[sinkingfeeling]

39. The quicker this gets to court, the better!!

[speedoo]

42. As Wayne and Garth used to say.....

"Excellent!!!"

[MGKrebs]

44. Call me cynical.

The appeals (to avoid testifying) alone will take a couple of years I would think. And if or when the case DOES reach the SC, what are the odds that THIS SC will make them testify?

This is why they had to have their guys on the court instead of moderates. The NeoCon law is superior to the normal law. I think this is one reason why the Christ-ian fundamentalists are such a good base for them- they already are familiar with the concept of a superior law (not to mention a crusade against Muslims, and abandonment of reason, logic, and science.)

[krispos42]

47. What goes around comes around...

The only reason I can think of that they are soooooo behind this unitary executive position is that they don't plan on ever letting a Democrat in the White House, or that Jesus will come back in the next two years or something. Ahhh... President Feingold, the unitary executive...

Just the thought makes the neocons soil themselves. President Hillary, the unitary executive... causes instant cardio explosion.

Be careful what you wish for. You might get it.

[NEOBuckeye]

48. What goes around, comes around n/t

[Joe Bacon]

50. Wont happen--Watch the court overturn the Jones decision

I fully expect the Whore Court to overturn the Jones decision by a 5-4 vote (AND YOU KNOW WHICH FIVE WILL VOTE TO OVERTURN!)