On the Forty Eighth Day of Fitzmas

On Friday, Judge Walton issued a "memorandum opinion" to "memorialize" the basis for some of his decisions on pre-trial motions and during the trial. Emptywheel at firedoglake suggests it's a preemptive strike against any defense appeal which might be based on the judge's rulings. The upshot is that Judge Walton says Team Libby could have secured its stated goals any number of unobjectionable ways (which are described - i.e. Libby and Cheney could have testified), but willfully declined to employ those means to do so. (Going unsaid was the potential benefit bonanza to the prosecution, if the defense had put Libby and/or Cheney on the stand.)