Did Cheney's Personal Lawyer Release Dick's Statement on Libby?

by emptywheel

It sure seems that way. Remember Cheney's statement about how sad he was that his firewall actually may have to do time for serving as a firewall?

Scooter has dedicated much of his life to public service at the State Department, the Department of Defense and the White House.  In each of these assignments he has served the nation tirelessly and with great distinction.  I relied on him heavily in my capacity as Secretary of Defense and as Vice President. I have always considered him to be a man of the highest intellect, judgment and personal integrity-a man fully committed to protecting the vital security interests of the United States and its citizens.  Scooter is also a friend, and on a personal level Lynne and I remain deeply saddened by this tragedy and its effect on his wife, Harriet, and their young children.  The defense has indicated it plans to appeal the conviction in the case.  Speaking as friends, we hope that our system will return a final result consistent with what we know of this fine man. [my emphasis]

Well, I didn't get a hard copy of that statement (go figure). But apparently the Tribune company did. And The Swamp's Frank James noticed something curious about the statement:

Unlike most White House press releases, this particular one gave as a contact someone at the Williams and Connolly law firm.

Terrence O'Donnell, Cheney's personal lawyer, is a partner Williams and Connolly.

All of which suggests that Cheney, struggling to find a way to say that Libby's sentencing was wrong without risking obstruction charges, went to his lawyer and (I presume) inserted such caveats as "speaking as friends" before he started making wholesale attacks on the verdict.

This is no doubt a new wrinkle to the unitary executive myth. Cheney believes, of course, that he is not subject to legislative oversight because he is technically President of the Senate. Yet he is also entitled to executive privilege as the second-ranking member of the executive branch. Apparently, there's a new privilege he's working on, in which he can say anything in the voice of a "personal friend" and have that caveat negate any legal responsibility for his statements.

And one more thing: this was released very quickly after the verdict, by the time I made it back to any press coverage on Tuesday. That says Cheney had his lawyer ready to make this statement at the drop of a hat. Mr. O'Donnell is exhibiting the same remarkable turnaround time as Robert Bork.

Comments

[Sailmaker]

Humm. So one may 'speak as friends', on White House letterhead, on the White House web site? http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/06/20070605-12.html

Most people I know have a professional letterhead and a personal one, but those are just the folk I hang out with.

[earlofhuntingdon]

I resisted actually reading Mr. C's lament for Irving. If he used WH letterhead, his position seems even more bizarre.

Perhpaps Mr. C thinks of himself as the Holy Trinity: there's God the Vice President, God the President of the Senate, and God the Good Friend. Critics can't touch Him in any capacity because, by definition, they must be from the Other Place, or are at least heretics who have earned His wrath and their damnation.

I suppose He may think that when in the guise of the Good Friend, He can seek alms for His friends and Himself that, if illegal by earthly lights, can't be held against Him in His other two roles. Anyone been to seminary who can pursue that line of thought?

[Neil]

Clearly, VP Cheney's statements published on the White House Web site here, here, even when qualified with language such as "as a friend" are barely distinguishable from the official position of our government. Cheney's statements have a deleterious and delegitimizing effect on the integrity of the judicial process and by implication on Judge Walton and USA Patrick Fitzgerald.

I'm pleased Nadler recognized this and asked Cheney to recuse himself.

[nolo]

i agree 100 percent with the esteemed
mr. neil, above -- AND i agree 100 percent
with the esteemed ms. EW (above, more), that
is -- cheney's statements are at best bizzarre.

rep. conyers and rep. nadler well-articulated
why it is wholly inappropriate for a sitting
vice president to make such statements -- and
that analysis applies whether he speaks personally,
or on white house stationary. . . the ever-
obsfuscating mr. cheney, though, will likely
never answer conyers and nadler -- though they
have plainly requested one, from hisss-self.

if he were to answer, he might suggest that his
inclusion of lynne's name in his sentiments meant
that these were HER thoughts, and he just "went
along" in order to preserve (marital) domestic
tranquility -- which is -- of course, a load of
manure. . .

okay. who's next?

[taraka das]

According to TPM, Fred Fielding has hired a whole slew of attorneys. Click on the link and look at the list. Quite a few of them are from Cheney's lawyer's law firm.

[Watson]

earlofhuntingdon: 'Critics can't touch Him in any capacity because, by definition, they must be from the Other Place.'

Didn't Nixon file non-resident income tax returns in NY, California, and DC (or was it Florida?), claiming in each filing that he lived in one of the other jurisdictions?