WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.740 Imagine you're grabbing a political thriller 00:00:02.740 --> 00:00:04.849 at the airport. You know exactly what you're 00:00:04.849 --> 00:00:07.990 signing up for, right? There's a leaked CIA identity, 00:00:08.509 --> 00:00:11.029 a dogged special counsel closing in, and, you 00:00:11.029 --> 00:00:13.669 know, a powerful vice president's right -hand 00:00:13.669 --> 00:00:16.230 man just staring down the barrel of federal prison. 00:00:16.289 --> 00:00:18.489 Right, the classic pot -boiler setup. Exactly. 00:00:18.769 --> 00:00:21.370 You expect this really neat narrative arc where 00:00:21.370 --> 00:00:24.149 the smoking gun is found and the truth is just 00:00:24.149 --> 00:00:26.510 universally recognized. But when you step into 00:00:26.510 --> 00:00:29.410 the real -world historical record of early 21st 00:00:29.410 --> 00:00:32.590 century Washington, D .C., that airport thriller 00:00:32.590 --> 00:00:35.079 is... Well, it's missing a few chapters. Oh, 00:00:35.119 --> 00:00:37.740 absolutely. The plot twists in reality are far 00:00:37.740 --> 00:00:40.039 stranger than fiction here. Yeah, because we're 00:00:40.039 --> 00:00:42.619 talking about a fugitive billionaire, a lifelong 00:00:42.619 --> 00:00:45.100 obsession with a deadly virus, and a presidential 00:00:45.100 --> 00:00:47.179 pardon that completely fractured a White House. 00:00:47.479 --> 00:00:50.539 Welcome to the Deep Dive. Today, our issue for 00:00:50.539 --> 00:00:53.140 you is unpacking the incredibly complex life, 00:00:53.259 --> 00:00:56.020 career, and controversies of I. Lewis Scooter 00:00:56.020 --> 00:00:58.500 Libby. It really is a master class in the intersection 00:00:58.500 --> 00:01:02.679 of absolute political loyalty and the rigid mechanisms 00:01:02.679 --> 00:01:05.480 of the legal system. It is. We are tracing his 00:01:05.480 --> 00:01:07.799 path from a surprisingly left -leaning student 00:01:07.799 --> 00:01:10.579 to the highest -ranking White House official 00:01:10.579 --> 00:01:13.700 convicted in a government scandal since your 00:01:13.700 --> 00:01:15.319 own contra, actually. Yeah, and when we look 00:01:15.319 --> 00:01:18.120 at his story, we're really looking at what happens 00:01:18.120 --> 00:01:21.180 when The very traits that elevate someone to 00:01:21.180 --> 00:01:23.579 the highest halls of power are the exact same 00:01:23.579 --> 00:01:27.040 traits that orchestrate their downfall. So, to 00:01:27.040 --> 00:01:29.219 understand the ultimate insider, we really need 00:01:29.219 --> 00:01:31.519 to figure out how he started as an outsider. 00:01:32.060 --> 00:01:34.900 Born in 1950, he grows up in an affluent family 00:01:34.900 --> 00:01:37.439 in New Haven, Connecticut. And his father, who 00:01:37.439 --> 00:01:39.420 was an investment banker, actually changed the 00:01:39.420 --> 00:01:42.540 family name from Leibovitz to Libby. Right, which 00:01:42.540 --> 00:01:44.859 is an interesting early note on, you know, crafting 00:01:44.859 --> 00:01:47.500 an identity. Mm -hmm. And then he heads to Yale. 00:01:47.739 --> 00:01:49.319 And this is the part that really surprised me 00:01:49.319 --> 00:01:51.480 because, you know, knowing who he becomes, he 00:01:51.480 --> 00:01:53.480 doesn't start out as a conservative firebrand. 00:01:53.719 --> 00:01:56.280 He actually serves as the vice president of the 00:01:56.280 --> 00:01:58.299 Yale College Democrats. Yeah, that always shocks 00:01:58.299 --> 00:02:00.500 people. I mean, he even campaigned for Michael 00:02:00.500 --> 00:02:02.540 Dukakis when Dukakis was running for governor 00:02:02.540 --> 00:02:05.819 of Massachusetts. So how does someone with that 00:02:05.819 --> 00:02:08.800 background become the architect of early 2000s 00:02:08.800 --> 00:02:11.099 conservative policy? It really comes down to 00:02:11.099 --> 00:02:13.460 the sheer gravitational pull of mentorship in 00:02:13.460 --> 00:02:17.419 Washington. Two specific classes at Yale completely 00:02:17.419 --> 00:02:20.259 rerouted his trajectory. The first was a political 00:02:20.259 --> 00:02:22.800 science course taught by a man named Paul Wolfowitz. 00:02:23.240 --> 00:02:26.159 Ah, right. Who later becomes the deputy secretary 00:02:26.159 --> 00:02:28.740 of defense. Exactly. Wolfowitz basically became 00:02:28.740 --> 00:02:31.650 Libby's lifelong mentor. And that relationship 00:02:31.650 --> 00:02:35.210 completely overrode Libby's early left -leaning 00:02:35.210 --> 00:02:38.110 politics. It perfectly demonstrates how, in the 00:02:38.110 --> 00:02:41.129 DC ecosystem, personal relationships and networks 00:02:41.129 --> 00:02:43.669 often dictate your career path far more than 00:02:43.669 --> 00:02:45.650 whatever ideology you held when you were 19. 00:02:45.729 --> 00:02:47.389 Okay, let's unpack this, because you mentioned 00:02:47.389 --> 00:02:49.729 two classes. What was the second one? A creative 00:02:49.729 --> 00:02:51.949 writing course. And it wasn't just a passing 00:02:51.949 --> 00:02:54.870 interest. That single class sparked a 20 -year 00:02:54.870 --> 00:02:57.389 mission for Libby to write and publish a thriller 00:02:57.389 --> 00:03:00.520 novel called The Apprentice. Wait, really? 20 00:03:00.520 --> 00:03:04.620 years. 20 years. It's set in 1903 Japan. right 00:03:04.620 --> 00:03:07.240 in the middle of a smallpox epidemic. And it 00:03:07.240 --> 00:03:09.800 deals with some incredibly dark themes. He just, 00:03:09.979 --> 00:03:12.379 he worked on this book for decades while building 00:03:12.379 --> 00:03:15.460 his career. That is wild. I mean, he's literally 00:03:15.460 --> 00:03:17.900 writing an espionage thriller while living one. 00:03:18.139 --> 00:03:20.360 And he even treats his own personal identity 00:03:20.360 --> 00:03:22.960 like he's a covert operative. Oh, he was famously 00:03:22.960 --> 00:03:26.020 secretive. Yeah, even about his name. So the 00:03:26.020 --> 00:03:28.539 nickname Scooter supposedly comes from his father 00:03:28.539 --> 00:03:30.680 watching him crawl in his crib saying, he's a 00:03:30.680 --> 00:03:34.340 Scooter. But years later, in a 2002 interview, 00:03:34.520 --> 00:03:36.460 Larry King actually asked him if the nickname 00:03:36.460 --> 00:03:39.039 was related to the famous baseball player Phil 00:03:39.039 --> 00:03:41.060 Rizzuto, who was also called the Scooter. And 00:03:41.060 --> 00:03:43.439 what did he say to that? Libby just joked, I 00:03:43.439 --> 00:03:45.699 had the range, but not the arm. And it's not 00:03:45.699 --> 00:03:48.439 just the nickname. He's incredibly guarded about 00:03:48.439 --> 00:03:51.780 his real first name. The I might stand for Irving, 00:03:51.939 --> 00:03:55.860 like his dad, or Irv. A Yale yearbook and a federal 00:03:55.860 --> 00:03:57.979 directory list him with a junior suffix, but 00:03:57.979 --> 00:03:59.860 his federal indictment didn't even include it. 00:03:59.979 --> 00:04:03.180 That level of compartmentalization, the ability 00:04:03.180 --> 00:04:06.340 to keep things tightly boxed up, that is a crucial 00:04:06.340 --> 00:04:09.159 trait for the career he eventually built. After 00:04:09.159 --> 00:04:11.560 he gets his law degree from Columbia, he starts 00:04:11.560 --> 00:04:14.340 building this fascinating dual identity. Right, 00:04:14.599 --> 00:04:17.300 toggling back and forth. Exactly. On one hand, 00:04:17.319 --> 00:04:19.759 he's a high -powered private practice lawyer. 00:04:20.240 --> 00:04:22.959 On the other, he's a dedicated government policymaker. 00:04:23.120 --> 00:04:26.000 And in the 80s and 90s, he's working at the State 00:04:26.000 --> 00:04:28.620 Department and the Pentagon under his old mentor, 00:04:28.839 --> 00:04:32.279 Paul Wolfowitz. But then he jumps back into the 00:04:32.279 --> 00:04:35.000 private sector as a managing partner at these 00:04:35.000 --> 00:04:37.399 heavy hitting law firms. And I have to bring 00:04:37.399 --> 00:04:39.360 up a massive controversy here. I think I know 00:04:39.360 --> 00:04:41.420 where you're going with this. The Mark Rich case. 00:04:41.699 --> 00:04:44.779 Yes, because he takes on fugitive billionaire 00:04:44.779 --> 00:04:47.519 Mark Rich as a client. So for you listening, 00:04:47.860 --> 00:04:49.959 Mark Rich and his partner were indicted for tax 00:04:49.959 --> 00:04:52.819 evasion and illegal trading with Iran. And they 00:04:52.819 --> 00:04:55.139 were ultimately pardoned by President Bill Clinton 00:04:55.139 --> 00:04:58.139 in a highly scrutinized move right at the end 00:04:58.139 --> 00:04:59.879 of his presidency. Right. It was a massive scandal 00:04:59.879 --> 00:05:03.589 at the time. Libby represented Rich for years. 00:05:04.110 --> 00:05:06.290 He later testified at congressional hearing that 00:05:06.290 --> 00:05:08.949 he genuinely believed the prosecution had misconstrued 00:05:08.949 --> 00:05:11.689 the facts and the law. A House committee report 00:05:11.689 --> 00:05:14.110 did conclude that Libby didn't directly advocate 00:05:14.110 --> 00:05:16.730 for the presidential pardon itself, but he was 00:05:16.730 --> 00:05:18.790 still deep in the legal trenches defending a 00:05:18.790 --> 00:05:21.250 guy accused of trading with an enemy state. Yeah, 00:05:21.250 --> 00:05:23.629 it looks completely contradictory from the outside. 00:05:23.889 --> 00:05:25.670 I am really struggling to square the circle. 00:05:25.990 --> 00:05:28.730 I mean, by day, Libby is drafting top secret 00:05:28.730 --> 00:05:30.870 national defense strategy for the Pentagon. on, 00:05:31.149 --> 00:05:34.569 like the 1992 defense planning guidance. But 00:05:34.569 --> 00:05:37.290 by night, he's a private lawyer defending this 00:05:37.290 --> 00:05:40.670 highly controversial billionaire. How does a 00:05:40.670 --> 00:05:43.529 single individual balance that ethical gymnastics 00:05:43.529 --> 00:05:46.209 routine? Well, because to Libby and to many in 00:05:46.209 --> 00:05:49.050 Washington's elite legal circles, there is no 00:05:49.050 --> 00:05:51.069 contradiction. It's what you might call the lawyer 00:05:51.069 --> 00:05:53.350 -loyalist mentality. Interesting. What does that 00:05:53.350 --> 00:05:55.970 mean in practice? It means whether you are a 00:05:55.970 --> 00:05:58.329 principal in the government or a client in private 00:05:58.329 --> 00:06:01.069 practice, you receive the exact same treatment 00:06:01.069 --> 00:06:04.509 from him. Fierce, unyielding defense and strategy. 00:06:05.029 --> 00:06:07.189 His college roommate actually once noted that 00:06:07.189 --> 00:06:09.790 if Libby is your counsel, he will figure a way 00:06:09.790 --> 00:06:13.009 out of whatever noose you are ensnared in. Wow. 00:06:13.269 --> 00:06:15.910 Yeah. He didn't view Mark Rich's actions through 00:06:15.910 --> 00:06:19.430 a moral lens, right? He viewed them as a legal 00:06:19.430 --> 00:06:22.009 puzzle to solve for his client. And if we connect 00:06:22.009 --> 00:06:25.329 this to the bigger picture, that intense partisan 00:06:25.329 --> 00:06:28.089 dedication to protecting the boss is exactly 00:06:28.089 --> 00:06:30.629 why he skyrocketed in government. Okay, that 00:06:30.629 --> 00:06:32.689 makes sense, because he becomes part of this 00:06:32.689 --> 00:06:35.149 neoconservative network known as the Vulcans, 00:06:35.430 --> 00:06:37.689 alongside heavyweights like Condoleezza Rice 00:06:37.689 --> 00:06:40.529 and Donald Rumsfeld. He was also a signatory 00:06:40.529 --> 00:06:42.550 for the project for the New American Century, 00:06:42.829 --> 00:06:46.069 or PNA. Which is incredibly influential. Right, 00:06:46.129 --> 00:06:48.949 and for those who might not know, PNA was a think 00:06:48.949 --> 00:06:51.350 tank whose core philosophy was that American 00:06:51.350 --> 00:06:53.569 global leadership and military strength were 00:06:53.569 --> 00:06:56.310 essential for world peace and security. That 00:06:56.310 --> 00:06:58.629 ideology really set the stage for the post -911 00:06:58.629 --> 00:07:02.490 world. And by 2001, Libby becomes chief of staff 00:07:02.490 --> 00:07:05.410 to Vice President Dick Cheney. He was so vital 00:07:05.410 --> 00:07:07.709 to Cheney's operation that political adviser 00:07:07.709 --> 00:07:11.550 Mary Madeline said, he is to the vice president 00:07:11.550 --> 00:07:13.269 what the vice president is to the president. 00:07:13.569 --> 00:07:15.990 He was literally nicknamed Dick Cheney's Dick 00:07:15.990 --> 00:07:18.649 Cheney. Exactly. And let's not forget his other 00:07:18.649 --> 00:07:21.870 slightly more ominous White House nickname. Oh, 00:07:21.910 --> 00:07:25.199 right. Germ Boy. Yeah, Germ Boy. He earned that 00:07:25.199 --> 00:07:27.800 because he pushed incredibly hard within the 00:07:27.800 --> 00:07:30.680 administration for universal smallpox vaccination. 00:07:31.139 --> 00:07:33.000 And I want you to keep that detail in the back 00:07:33.000 --> 00:07:35.259 of your mind, listener, because it is a fascinating 00:07:35.259 --> 00:07:37.980 psychological thread we'll pull on later. But 00:07:37.980 --> 00:07:40.480 right now we need to talk about how this unyielding 00:07:40.480 --> 00:07:43.500 protect the boss at all costs mindset that Libby 00:07:43.500 --> 00:07:45.819 honed as a defense lawyer eventually collided 00:07:45.819 --> 00:07:49.220 head on with the CIA, which brings us to the 00:07:49.220 --> 00:07:51.680 Plame Affair. As we pivot to the leak, we are 00:07:51.680 --> 00:07:53.959 stepping into an era defined by the lead -up 00:07:53.959 --> 00:07:57.060 to the Iraq War, which remains a deeply contentious 00:07:57.060 --> 00:07:59.480 period in modern history. Absolutely. And I want 00:07:59.480 --> 00:08:02.360 to be crystal clear to you, the listener, right 00:08:02.360 --> 00:08:05.360 now. The Iraq war, the Bush administration's 00:08:05.360 --> 00:08:07.980 intelligence gathering, the weapons of mass destruction 00:08:07.980 --> 00:08:11.500 claims. These are heavily, heavily debated topics. 00:08:12.000 --> 00:08:13.879 But for our deep dive today, we are checking 00:08:13.879 --> 00:08:15.939 the politics at the door. Right. We have to. 00:08:15.980 --> 00:08:18.000 We aren't taking a left -wing stance. We aren't 00:08:18.000 --> 00:08:20.379 taking a right -wing stance. And we aren't endorsing 00:08:20.379 --> 00:08:22.759 any political viewpoint about the war itself. 00:08:23.339 --> 00:08:25.860 We are strictly and impartially looking at the 00:08:25.860 --> 00:08:28.339 raw mechanics of how this specific Federal League 00:08:28.339 --> 00:08:31.180 investigation unfolded, based entirely on the 00:08:31.180 --> 00:08:33.379 historical record. With that established, the 00:08:33.379 --> 00:08:35.539 inciting incident here is the public disclosure 00:08:35.539 --> 00:08:38.379 of Valerie Plame's identity. She was a covert 00:08:38.379 --> 00:08:41.519 CIA officer. Her husband, former Ambassador Joe 00:08:41.519 --> 00:08:44.600 Wilson, had become a very vocal public critic 00:08:44.600 --> 00:08:46.879 of the Bush administration's rationale for the 00:08:46.879 --> 00:08:49.340 war. And leaking the identity of a covert agent 00:08:49.340 --> 00:08:51.620 is a massive national security breach. I mean, 00:08:51.759 --> 00:08:53.759 it burns their intelligence networks and puts 00:08:53.759 --> 00:08:57.799 actual lives at risk. Exactly. So between 2003 00:08:57.799 --> 00:09:01.460 and 2005, an intense federal investigation led 00:09:01.460 --> 00:09:04.240 by special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald tried to 00:09:04.240 --> 00:09:06.200 figure out who whispered her name to the press. 00:09:06.509 --> 00:09:09.529 And Scooter Libby quickly became a central figure, 00:09:09.990 --> 00:09:11.710 specifically regarding his meetings with New 00:09:11.710 --> 00:09:13.850 York Times reporter Judith Miller. The interaction 00:09:13.850 --> 00:09:15.909 between Libby and Judith Miller is fascinating 00:09:15.909 --> 00:09:18.610 because it really hinges on journalistic ethings 00:09:18.610 --> 00:09:21.950 and a mechanism called a blanket waiver. Yeah, 00:09:22.029 --> 00:09:23.549 this is where it gets really complicated legally. 00:09:23.840 --> 00:09:26.220 Right. Essentially, in journalism, protecting 00:09:26.220 --> 00:09:28.940 a source's confidentiality is sacred. When the 00:09:28.940 --> 00:09:31.419 FBI started investigating the leak, the White 00:09:31.419 --> 00:09:33.840 House had officials sign a blanket waiver, this 00:09:33.840 --> 00:09:35.879 mass -produced document saying to reporters, 00:09:36.259 --> 00:09:38.220 you have my permission to talk to the FBI about 00:09:38.220 --> 00:09:40.259 our conversations. But reporters like Judith 00:09:40.259 --> 00:09:43.139 Miller knew that if a politician is forced by 00:09:43.139 --> 00:09:45.740 federal investigators to sign a form... It's 00:09:45.740 --> 00:09:48.740 not really voluntary. She refused to testify 00:09:48.740 --> 00:09:51.480 based on that generic waiver. She actually went 00:09:51.480 --> 00:09:54.259 to jail for contempt of court for months to protect 00:09:54.259 --> 00:09:56.960 her source. Months in jail. Just to protect the 00:09:56.960 --> 00:10:00.159 source. Right. She demanded a personal voluntary 00:10:00.159 --> 00:10:02.759 waiver directly from Libby to prove he actually 00:10:02.759 --> 00:10:05.840 wanted her to speak. And eventually, Libby sent 00:10:05.840 --> 00:10:08.700 her a personal letter. Which fueled endless speculation 00:10:08.700 --> 00:10:10.580 because of how it was phrased. Oh, completely. 00:10:11.240 --> 00:10:13.620 He writes, quote, The public report of every 00:10:13.620 --> 00:10:16.039 other reporter's testimony makes clear that they 00:10:16.039 --> 00:10:18.639 did not discuss Mrs. Plame's name or identity 00:10:18.639 --> 00:10:21.299 with me or knew about her before a call. Like, 00:10:21.340 --> 00:10:23.659 what does that even mean in this context? But 00:10:23.659 --> 00:10:26.340 that letter finally gets Miller to testify. And 00:10:26.340 --> 00:10:28.279 when she goes before the grand jury for a second 00:10:28.279 --> 00:10:31.320 time, she produces a previously undisclosed notebook 00:10:31.320 --> 00:10:34.240 from a June 2003 meeting she had with Libby. 00:10:34.419 --> 00:10:37.129 And what's in the notebook? Well, in the margins, 00:10:37.370 --> 00:10:40.149 she had written the name Valerie Flame, misspelled 00:10:40.149 --> 00:10:42.870 with an F instead of a P. Now, Miller testified 00:10:42.870 --> 00:10:45.149 she couldn't remember exactly how or why she 00:10:45.149 --> 00:10:47.230 wrote that, and she didn't explicitly attribute 00:10:47.230 --> 00:10:50.129 the name's origin directly to Libby in that exact 00:10:50.129 --> 00:10:53.710 moment. But it established a paper trail. It 00:10:53.710 --> 00:10:55.809 proved that conversations about Wilson's wife 00:10:55.809 --> 00:10:58.389 were happening with Libby very early on. And 00:10:58.389 --> 00:11:00.909 this brings us to the critical mechanism of the 00:11:00.909 --> 00:11:03.539 indictment. This raises an important question 00:11:03.539 --> 00:11:05.960 about what Fitzgerald was actually going after. 00:11:06.519 --> 00:11:10.240 In October 2005, Special Counsel Fitzgerald indicts 00:11:10.240 --> 00:11:13.039 Libby on five counts obstruction of justice, 00:11:13.539 --> 00:11:16.779 perjury, and making false statements. Libby immediately 00:11:16.779 --> 00:11:19.539 resigns. But wait. The trial later confirmed 00:11:19.539 --> 00:11:22.179 that the original person who leaked Plame's identity 00:11:22.179 --> 00:11:25.279 to the press was actually then Deputy Secretary 00:11:25.279 --> 00:11:27.879 of State Richard Armitage, who did it somewhat 00:11:27.879 --> 00:11:30.419 carelessly in passing. Right. So back up a second. 00:11:30.960 --> 00:11:32.799 If Richard Armitage was the original leaker, 00:11:33.299 --> 00:11:35.480 why is Scooter Libby the one getting hit with 00:11:35.480 --> 00:11:37.820 a five count federal indictment? Why did he take 00:11:37.820 --> 00:11:40.250 the fall? Because of the cover up. Think of it 00:11:40.250 --> 00:11:42.669 like a fire. Fitzgerald couldn't prove Libby 00:11:42.669 --> 00:11:44.990 started the fire, but he could absolutely prove 00:11:44.990 --> 00:11:47.629 Libby hid the fire extinguishers. Oh, wow. That's 00:11:47.629 --> 00:11:49.690 a great way to put it. Yeah. So Libby told FBI 00:11:49.690 --> 00:11:51.769 investigators that he first heard about Plame's 00:11:51.769 --> 00:11:54.230 CIA employment from Vice President Cheney and 00:11:54.230 --> 00:11:57.330 then later from journalist Tim Russert. Libby 00:11:57.330 --> 00:11:59.330 claimed that he subsequently acted as if he didn't 00:11:59.330 --> 00:12:01.610 know this information when talking to other reporters. 00:12:01.879 --> 00:12:04.139 But the indictment alleged that timeline was 00:12:04.139 --> 00:12:07.019 intentionally false. Fitzgerald argued that Libby 00:12:07.019 --> 00:12:09.519 was having deliberate strategic conversations 00:12:09.519 --> 00:12:12.200 with multiple reporters, including Judith Miller, 00:12:12.639 --> 00:12:15.179 long before he ever spoke to Russert. And the 00:12:15.179 --> 00:12:17.340 kicker is Russert testified he didn't even tell 00:12:17.340 --> 00:12:20.879 Libby about it anyway. Exactly. By lying to the 00:12:20.879 --> 00:12:23.759 FBI and the grand jury about how and when he 00:12:23.759 --> 00:12:26.159 learned the information, Libby threw sand in 00:12:26.159 --> 00:12:29.110 the gears of the investigation. Fitzgerald argued 00:12:29.110 --> 00:12:31.269 that Libby's conflicting statements created a 00:12:31.269 --> 00:12:33.250 cloud. A cloud that obstructed the grand jury 00:12:33.250 --> 00:12:35.490 from figuring out exactly how the leak happened. 00:12:35.629 --> 00:12:37.889 Right, and whether the leak itself violated federal 00:12:37.889 --> 00:12:40.070 law. He didn't go down for the leak. He went 00:12:40.070 --> 00:12:42.669 down for trying to outsmart the detectives. That 00:12:42.669 --> 00:12:45.289 is a phenomenal distinction. It moves us from 00:12:45.289 --> 00:12:47.389 the mechanics of the investigation right into 00:12:47.389 --> 00:12:49.970 the courtroom drama and eventually the Oval Office 00:12:49.970 --> 00:12:53.340 fallout. So the trial begins in early 2007 and 00:12:53.340 --> 00:12:56.120 it is a complete media circus. You have a parade 00:12:56.120 --> 00:12:58.440 of Pulitzer Prize winning journalists taking 00:12:58.440 --> 00:13:01.440 the stand. Bob Woodward, Walter Pincus, Judith 00:13:01.440 --> 00:13:04.259 Miller. And yet, despite all the buildup, neither 00:13:04.259 --> 00:13:06.360 Scooter Libby nor Vice President Dick Cheney 00:13:06.360 --> 00:13:10.019 testifies. Which is huge. After 10 days of deliberation, 00:13:10.279 --> 00:13:13.379 the jury convicts Libby on four of the five counts. 00:13:13.679 --> 00:13:15.679 And the sentencing handed down by Judge Reggie 00:13:15.679 --> 00:13:19.000 Walton is severe. He gives Libby 30 months in 00:13:19.000 --> 00:13:23.179 federal prison, a $250 ,000 fine, two years of 00:13:23.179 --> 00:13:25.919 supervised release, and 400 hours of community 00:13:25.919 --> 00:13:27.960 service. Judge Walton really did not play around. 00:13:28.200 --> 00:13:30.659 No, he was incredibly strict throughout the entire 00:13:30.659 --> 00:13:33.539 process. He even forced Libby to prepare to go 00:13:33.539 --> 00:13:36.200 to prison pending his appeal rather than letting 00:13:36.200 --> 00:13:38.240 him remain free while the appeal played out. 00:13:38.639 --> 00:13:41.320 The historical record shows Walton actually revealed 00:13:41.320 --> 00:13:44.600 in court that he was receiving hateful mean -spirited 00:13:44.600 --> 00:13:47.049 phone calls from the public because of his strict 00:13:47.049 --> 00:13:50.210 stance on the case. He also wrote a rather caustic 00:13:50.210 --> 00:13:52.809 footnote dismissing a legal brief filed by prominent 00:13:52.809 --> 00:13:55.210 law professors who supported Libby's bail. I 00:13:55.210 --> 00:13:58.090 remember that footnote. Yeah. Walton sarcastically 00:13:58.090 --> 00:14:00.090 thanked them for their impressive show of public 00:14:00.090 --> 00:14:02.190 service and said he hoped they would show the 00:14:02.190 --> 00:14:04.649 same zeal for criminal defendants who lack financial 00:14:04.649 --> 00:14:08.649 means. Ouch. Yeah, ouch is right. It really highlights 00:14:08.649 --> 00:14:11.110 the massive class and power dynamics at play. 00:14:11.259 --> 00:14:13.799 The judge was ensuring that a powerful White 00:14:13.799 --> 00:14:16.019 House official was treated just like any other 00:14:16.019 --> 00:14:18.740 criminal defendant. So Libby is staring down 00:14:18.740 --> 00:14:20.919 the barrel of two and a half years in federal 00:14:20.919 --> 00:14:23.399 prison, and this triggers a massive political 00:14:23.399 --> 00:14:25.580 rupture within the executive branch. Right, because 00:14:25.580 --> 00:14:29.840 on July 2, 2007, President George W. Bush intervenes 00:14:29.840 --> 00:14:32.980 with a grant of executive clemency. But he doesn't 00:14:32.980 --> 00:14:35.960 issue a full pardon. He chooses a third. middle 00:14:35.960 --> 00:14:38.519 road option. Exactly. He commutes the 30 month 00:14:38.519 --> 00:14:41.360 prison sentence, meaning he erases the jail time, 00:14:41.399 --> 00:14:44.200 calling it excessive, but he leaves the felony 00:14:44.200 --> 00:14:47.019 conviction, the fine and the probation completely 00:14:47.019 --> 00:14:49.899 intact. Libby actually pays the quarter million 00:14:49.899 --> 00:14:52.970 dollar fine that exact same day. By taking that 00:14:52.970 --> 00:14:56.190 middle road, Bush managed to infuriate absolutely 00:14:56.190 --> 00:14:59.110 everyone. Democratic politicians were outraged, 00:14:59.110 --> 00:15:01.690 viewing the commutation as a corrupt abrogation 00:15:01.690 --> 00:15:04.350 of justice. Joe Wilson publicly called Libby 00:15:04.350 --> 00:15:06.690 a traitor and stated the administration owed 00:15:06.690 --> 00:15:09.289 his family an apology. But on the other side, 00:15:09.730 --> 00:15:11.409 conservatives and Vice President Cheney were 00:15:11.409 --> 00:15:13.649 equally furious that it wasn't a full pardon. 00:15:14.090 --> 00:15:17.250 Oh, Cheney was livid. Cheney felt that Libby 00:15:17.250 --> 00:15:20.330 was a loyal aide facing a politically motivated 00:15:20.330 --> 00:15:24.259 prosecution. He believed Bush fundamentally damaged 00:15:24.259 --> 00:15:26.779 the administration's moral character by leaving 00:15:26.779 --> 00:15:29.259 a loyal soldier with a felony record that would 00:15:29.259 --> 00:15:31.559 ruin his life. Here's where it gets really interesting, 00:15:31.600 --> 00:15:33.779 and I want to push into the psychology of President 00:15:33.779 --> 00:15:37.080 Bush's decision here. If Bush was already going 00:15:37.080 --> 00:15:39.639 to take a massive political hit in the press 00:15:39.639 --> 00:15:42.539 and in the polls for intervening at all, and 00:15:42.539 --> 00:15:45.039 polls at the time showed most Americans disagreed 00:15:45.039 --> 00:15:47.370 with the intervention, Why didn't he just go 00:15:47.370 --> 00:15:49.789 all the way? Why not issue a full pardon like 00:15:49.789 --> 00:15:52.070 his vice president desperately wanted? Well, 00:15:52.129 --> 00:15:54.970 it really comes down to the specific calculated 00:15:54.970 --> 00:15:57.190 phrasing crafted by White House counsel Fred 00:15:57.190 --> 00:16:00.190 Fielding. The commutation was deliberately worded 00:16:00.190 --> 00:16:02.490 to be extremely difficult for Bush to revisit 00:16:02.490 --> 00:16:05.110 or upgrade to a full pardon later. So the language 00:16:05.110 --> 00:16:07.330 wasn't an accident? Not at all. It was designed 00:16:07.330 --> 00:16:09.669 to send an unmistakable internal message to his 00:16:09.669 --> 00:16:12.110 own administration and specifically to Cheney's 00:16:12.110 --> 00:16:14.899 camp, stating that no one is above the law. Wow. 00:16:15.039 --> 00:16:17.200 It wasn't just a legal maneuver. It was an internal 00:16:17.200 --> 00:16:20.899 power struggle. Exactly. It highlighted a fundamental 00:16:20.899 --> 00:16:23.200 fracture in how Bush and Cheney viewed their 00:16:23.200 --> 00:16:25.240 administration's actions and accountability. 00:16:26.039 --> 00:16:29.039 That half measure permanently damaged the relationship 00:16:29.039 --> 00:16:31.080 between the president and his vice president. 00:16:31.519 --> 00:16:34.159 So Libby avoids a prison cell, but his professional 00:16:34.159 --> 00:16:36.710 life is absolutely in ruins. The District of 00:16:36.710 --> 00:16:39.289 Columbia Court of Appeals disbars him, citing 00:16:39.289 --> 00:16:42.590 moral turpitude. He loses his license to practice 00:16:42.590 --> 00:16:45.549 law in Pennsylvania as well. And on top of that, 00:16:45.710 --> 00:16:48.230 the Wilsons file a civil suit against Libby, 00:16:48.389 --> 00:16:50.710 Cheney and Karl Rowe for their roles in the leak. 00:16:51.070 --> 00:16:53.070 Though it is worth noting, the civil suit mechanism 00:16:53.070 --> 00:16:55.750 didn't get very far. It was eventually dismissed 00:16:55.750 --> 00:16:58.250 by a federal judge on jurisdictional grounds. 00:16:58.509 --> 00:17:00.970 And interestingly, when the administration changed, 00:17:01.509 --> 00:17:03.850 the Obama Justice Department actually agreed 00:17:03.850 --> 00:17:05.930 with the Bush administration's legal position 00:17:05.930 --> 00:17:08.509 that the Wilsons had no legitimate grounds to 00:17:08.509 --> 00:17:10.589 sue, which greatly disappointed the Wilsons legal 00:17:10.589 --> 00:17:12.609 team. Right. So the legal threat is gone, but 00:17:12.609 --> 00:17:14.730 the reputation is still shattered. And I want 00:17:14.730 --> 00:17:17.549 you, the listener, to pause and think about what 00:17:17.549 --> 00:17:20.390 it takes to survive a public downfall of this 00:17:20.390 --> 00:17:24.130 absolute magnitude. I mean, your legal career, 00:17:24.250 --> 00:17:26.569 which you build over decades, is stripped away. 00:17:26.759 --> 00:17:29.140 Your name is permanently attached to a massive 00:17:29.140 --> 00:17:32.259 federal perjury and obstruction scandal. How 00:17:32.259 --> 00:17:35.019 do you possibly rebuild? Well, in Washington, 00:17:35.680 --> 00:17:37.819 legal redemption and historical reputation run 00:17:37.819 --> 00:17:41.170 on two entirely different tracks. Libby's long, 00:17:41.369 --> 00:17:44.349 slow resurrection showcases the sheer resilience 00:17:44.349 --> 00:17:46.509 of political networks. He didn't just fade away 00:17:46.509 --> 00:17:49.529 into obscurity. No, he pivoted. He became senior 00:17:49.529 --> 00:17:51.470 vice president at the Hudson Institute, which 00:17:51.470 --> 00:17:53.970 is a prominent conservative think tank advising 00:17:53.970 --> 00:17:56.410 on strategic planning. He even served on the 00:17:56.410 --> 00:17:58.589 Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense. Which 00:17:58.589 --> 00:18:00.529 is fascinating. Yeah, he helped put together 00:18:00.529 --> 00:18:02.970 a 33 -step initiative to strengthen national 00:18:02.970 --> 00:18:05.490 defense against biological threats. And gradually, 00:18:05.789 --> 00:18:07.650 the official permanent record started to be rolled 00:18:07.650 --> 00:18:10.049 back. The Washington ecosystem really takes care 00:18:10.049 --> 00:18:12.970 of its own. In 2012, his voting rights were restored 00:18:12.970 --> 00:18:15.930 by the governor of Virginia. In 2016, after a 00:18:15.930 --> 00:18:18.730 long battle, his law license was reinstated by 00:18:18.730 --> 00:18:21.309 the D .C. Court of Appeals. And finally, in April 00:18:21.309 --> 00:18:24.349 2018, he received a full presidential pardon 00:18:24.349 --> 00:18:27.009 from Donald Trump. It's the ultimate testament 00:18:27.009 --> 00:18:29.230 to the endurance of the insider. Yeah. If you 00:18:29.230 --> 00:18:31.589 stay in the network, the ecosystem will eventually 00:18:31.589 --> 00:18:34.349 rehabilitate you. Which brings me back to a detail 00:18:34.349 --> 00:18:35.970 I asked you to keep in the back of your mind 00:18:35.970 --> 00:18:39.160 earlier. Remember that 20 years Libby spent writing 00:18:39.160 --> 00:18:41.700 his dark fiction novel, The Apprentice. Right, 00:18:41.779 --> 00:18:43.900 the one about the massive smallpox epidemic in 00:18:43.900 --> 00:18:47.359 1903 Japan. Exactly. So years after he started 00:18:47.359 --> 00:18:49.480 writing it, he enters the White House as Dick 00:18:49.480 --> 00:18:52.660 Cheney's right -hand man. And he pushes so aggressively 00:18:52.660 --> 00:18:55.779 for universal smallpox vaccinations that his 00:18:55.779 --> 00:18:59.140 own colleagues nicknamed him Germ Boy. And then 00:18:59.140 --> 00:19:01.640 after his public downfall, he ends up on a national 00:19:01.640 --> 00:19:04.819 biodefense panel. It is this strange, almost 00:19:04.819 --> 00:19:07.609 haunting loop. It really is. It makes you question 00:19:07.609 --> 00:19:10.910 the poorest boundary between a person's imagination 00:19:10.910 --> 00:19:13.369 and their governance. Did Libby's deep dive into 00:19:13.369 --> 00:19:16.009 writing about fictional biological terror subconsciously 00:19:16.009 --> 00:19:18.109 shape his real world national security fears? 00:19:18.470 --> 00:19:21.630 Or did his inherent pre -existing anxieties about 00:19:21.630 --> 00:19:24.670 global threats merely find an early outlet in 00:19:24.670 --> 00:19:27.109 his fiction? Right, which came first? It's a 00:19:27.109 --> 00:19:29.230 fascinating question, and it's something for 00:19:29.230 --> 00:19:32.089 you to ponder long after this deep dive ends. 00:19:32.609 --> 00:19:35.450 It's a stark reminder to examine how the stories 00:19:35.450 --> 00:19:38.130 we consume, or in Livy's case, the stories we 00:19:38.130 --> 00:19:41.069 create, might silently dictate the policies we 00:19:41.069 --> 00:19:42.990 champion when we are finally handed the reins 00:19:42.990 --> 00:19:45.230 of power. You expect a political thriller to 00:19:45.230 --> 00:19:47.269 have a clear author and a clear suspect, right? 00:19:47.269 --> 00:19:49.710 Right. But in the halls of Washington, the author 00:19:49.710 --> 00:19:51.990 and the suspect are often writing the plot together. 00:19:52.710 --> 00:19:54.490 Thank you for joining us on this deep dive.