Lawrence O'Donnell: Rove’s Lawyer an on-the-Record Liar

At Arianna’s HuffPo party last month, Mickey Kaus was surprised when I told him I did not think Bob Luskin was a liar. In several posts here, I’ve had my fun with Luskin’s endless media spinning on behalf of his most famous client, Karl Rove, but I have never said he is a liar.

That was then.

Rove’s lawyer is now an on-the-record liar. The proof: Luskin told the Washington Post the other day that if Rove escapes indictment, it won’t be “the product of my particular skill or cleverness.” Whenever prominent Washingtonians resort to humility in print, they are lying at minimum about their state of mind. Luskin’s lie runs deeper than that. The truth is Rove is not yet indicted exclusively because of his lawyer’s “particular skill.”

The Washington Post profile that provoked Luskin’s one-and-only public lie stresses how good Luskin is at both the legal complexities of criminal defense work and the much simpler but time-consuming task of spinning/using the Washington press corps. If Luskin wasn’t brilliant at both of those things, Rove would be indicted now. Luskin’s use of Viveca Novak in his last minute meeting with Patrick Fitzgerald as the first grand jury’s term was expiring is what left Fitzgerald with only one name to indict.

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More at the link:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lawrence-odonnell/roves-lawyer-an-onthe_b_11871.html

... jury where he stated he did not remember his conversation with Matt Cooper, he has to be able to prove that he did not come forward because of the likelihood that his lie would be exposed.

I want to underscore this because it is critical and I think sometimes I take it for granted that people understand this. Vivac either did or did not tip off Luskin to the fact that his client was Matt Cooper's source, and it really doesn't matter whether his client had been forthcoming with him or not. The piece of information Luskin gleaned from this conversation is that Matt Cooper was not the only one who knew this, the story was in circulation and even if Cooper was successful in his bid to invoke journalistic privilege the story might out anyway. No matter what happens, O'Donnell is right. Vivac gave her good friend Luskin -- and I'm told they are very good friends -- extremely valuable information.

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I think Fitzgerald is perfectly happy to run around on Luskin's goat ropes because it gives him an excellent look into Rover's defense, and he can shape his indictment accordingly. If Luskin was so confident that this particular defense was exculpatory I think he would've offered it up long before the final days before Libby was indicted.

Much more at the link:

http://firedoglake.blogspot.com/2005_12_01_firedoglake_archive.html#113400079005515068