J$P Instant Transcript! Plame, Libby, Cheney...the Judge explains what all the recent developments really mean.

From The Big Story, February 10 2006:

JOHN GIBSON [FOX NEWS]: The National Journal is reporting that Lewis "Scooter" Libby was authorized by the Vice-President himself to leak classified information to the press. Defense attorneys are vehemently denying this report. Fox News Senior Judicial Analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano is here now. At the top of the show we talked to Carl Cameron about this, and he said, ah this story doesn't make sense. Because leaking the name is not what Libby's charged with, so why would this come up?

JUDGE ANDREW NAPOLITANO [FOX NEWS SENIOR JUDICIAL ANALYST]: I think Carl's 100% correct. Remember that Libby is charged with lying to the FBI, perjury before a grand jury, and obstruction of justice. Even if the Vice-President did tell him to go ahead and leak Valerie Plame's name, that statement, that instruction is not a defense to the charges against him. Therefore the statement is irrelevant. Therefore a judge probably would not even allow it to be made to the jury.

GIBSON: Is there no relevance who told Libby?

NAPOLITANO: There is no relevance to this trial who told Libby, except in this respect. If Libby were, let's say, shopping for a pardon from President Bush--

GIBSON: A pardon indicates that one is guilty.

NAPOLITANO: Not necessarily. And if the President were to think that Mr Libby were going to make this statement, it would be necessary then for the Vice-President to get on the stand and under oath deny the statement. In order to avoid the allegation and the denial, the President could issue a pardon to Mr Libby. There would be no trial, there'd be no allegation, there'd be no summoning of the Vice-President under oath.

GIBSON: A pardon simply to prevent the Vice-President from having to take the witness stand.

NAPOLITANO: The theory would be, the President would say, the reason for this pardon is to avoid the pressure on national security to have to reveal the way the office of the President and the Vice-President works. And there's precedent for this. Because Scooter Libby has hired a lawyer who defended a good friend of ours, and a personal hero to many of us here at Fox News, Col Oliver North. And one of the things that that lawyer did, was to demand so many classified documents that the Justice Department said, we give up. The court has ordered us to reveal these documents, the President won't let them revealed. The answer: dismiss the indictment. So that may be the challenge for Prosecutor Fitzgerald in this case.

GIBSON: OK. Is there any way that if Cheney had said to his assistant, hey look, I want you to go leak this woman's name, could that be legal?

NAPOLITANO: It would not be legal; it would not be--

GIBSON: Could the Vice-President do that legally?

NAPOLITANO: No, because the Vice-President would be instructing someone who has a classified clearance to violate it. So that instruction would be wrong, and the revealing of her name would be wrong. And even if Libby had been indicted for revealing her name, the fact that the Vice-President told him to do it is not be a defense.

GIBSON: OK, Judge Andrew Napolitano. Thank you very much, Judge.