by emptywheel
I noticed something interesting among the certifications from OVP's document discovery the other day. Two people amended their certifications to note that they hadn't done a search for any emails responsive to the subpoenas. Instead, they were trusting that the central search would cover their compliance with the subpoena.
The two people? Scooter Libby, who has already been convicted of lying to obstruct justice. And his then-personal assistant, Jenny Mayfield. How prescient of Mayfield, really, to note on her October 7 document request certification:
Nice touch, Jenny, naming Addington by name. And then again, on her February 6 document subpoena certification:
I guess Addington got pissed the last time, because this time she decides against naming him by name. And Jenny Mayfield appears to have made a similar note on Libby's February 6 document subpoena certification.
You see, the best explanation I can come up with to explain why Rove didn't get indicted for obstruction of justice for not turning over a bunch of emails that appear to have been saved on his computer hard drive is that Rove made a similar note--a note saying he assumed Alberto Gonzales was in charge of the search, and therefore he didn't need to search his own hard drive. (That of course doesn't explain why he's not responsible for turning over the email when his assistant printed it out on November 25, 2003, but never mind.) How remarkable, then, that the woman who did most of Scooter Libby's emailing for him had such a note on her document certifications?
Maybe I'm just still pissed that Jenny Mayfield--who no doubt would have been as interesting a witness as David Addington or Cathie Martin--never took the stand in Libby's trial. But I happen to think that Jenny Mayfield showed a remarkable degree of prescience, somehow guessing that certain emails wouldn't show up in a central server search.
It's the kind of prescience that Henry Waxman might show some interest in.