david wallechinsky writes:
Hannah is already in trouble because he was the conduit for the fake intelligence about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction that came from Ahmed Chalabi and that was fed to the U.S. public by Judith Miller of The New York Times. It was also Hannah, along with Scooter Libby, who introduced Colin Powell to all of the phony information that he used in his disastrous speech to the United Nations justifying the invasion of Iraq.
(more on the flip)
and from lawrence o'donnell:
A typical Washington, D.C. grand jury is about 75% African American. Fitzgerald's is slightly more than that. This is not the kind of group Karl Rove feels at home with. He has no professional experience trying to appeal to a group like this. He has been so unsuccessful at it that his boss's job approval rating with African Americans is now 2%, which, factoring in the margin of error, could actually be zero. To make matters statistically and demographically much worse for Rove and Scooter Libby, only 12 of the 23 grand jurors have to agree to indict them.
There is already a good deal of pundit anguish being spent over how unfair it would be if indictments only cover little things like lying to FBI agents or perjury, violations that today's New York Times calls "peripheral to the issue" Fitzgerald was appointed to investigate. Federal grand juries are constantly issuing indictments that are peripheral to the issue they were impaneled to consider. The question Rove and Libby are asking themselves today is: Does this seem like the kind of grand jury that is going to think lying to an FBI agent or perjury is a serious crime--unless you work in the White House? I think they know the answer.
assuming this goes to trial in the same jurisdiction then i also assume the jury pool will be of similar composition as the grand jury pool. if colin powell ends up being one of the prosecutions' witnesses that would carry a huge influence with a 75% african american jury. add to that that powell must be pissed at these guys for lieing to him and making him look like an idiot in front of the united nations, and we may have the makings of quite an interesting round of testimony. any prosecuter will tell you it is nice to have a motivated witness on your side rather than a reluctant one. and what is even better is that the defense would be unable to point out powell's motivation -- being lied to -- without admitting that their client's are LIARS!! it's perfect!