Indictment News

Ok, so this post is way out of date to announce the news that it is five counts on Libby and that is the extent of the indictments to date. I would say that the consensus is that these are serious charges and given the tightness of the indictment, Libby is in a lot of trouble.

There is a lot of speculation now as to what else might be in the works. Is the Libby indictment the end of the story or is there more. See Talk Left, Mark Kleiman, Daily Kos, and nearly everybody else for as many opinions on that question that you might want to have.

I'm still reading the indictment and thinking things through and I've only read through some of the opinions on the question of what comes next. However, it seems to me, at this point, that there is a bit of a mystery at this point. What was so essential about Miller's and Cooper's testimony, if the only issue was Libby's perjury? Perhaps I don't understand the law (I'm not a lawyer) and the perjury indictment does depend upon it in a crucial way, but it seems to me that the issue of why they were forced to testify is still an open question.

[Update 2:50 PM Oct 29 2005] Well now that I'm getting into the indictment I see that much of it focuses on false satements regarding conversations with Miller and Cooper. It still seems that the essential charge is present with regard to Russert. Therefore, I was wondering if the contempt charges for Miller and Cooper indicated that more serious charges were still in the works. They might well be, but I see that the indictment doesn't support that, at least not for the reason I gave above.

[Update 8:08 PM Oct 29 2005] Ok, now Billmon is echoing my thoughts regarding the need for Cooper and Miller to testify. Please, will someone with knowledge of the case clear this up.