Diary Prequel Package — page 152

1 by case but may be sentenced to jail before his appeal is heard. The purpose of the letter is to try and keep Scooter out of jail during the appeal. I wrote him a very supportive letter. April 18, 2007 - Testified before the House Committee on Homeland Security together with Gerry Parker, Jesse Goodman (FDA) and Jeff Runge (DHS) on the successes and failures of Bioshield. Committee chaired by Jim Langevin. Hearing called because several of the companies that were trying for Bioshield procurement contracts had failed, i.e. Vaxgen for rPA and Hollois Eden for Neumune (to protect and regenerate BM after radiation). Richard Hollis testified against the USG and Dr. Davis from HGS (that makes AbThrax - monoclonal antibody against anthrax toxin) testified favorably towards the USG. Hollis looked like a whiner and the Hearing went fine. It is clear that Bennie Thompson, the overall Chair is in the pocket of the lobbyists as his questions reflected a "presumption" of failure on the part of DHHS and BioShield. April 20, 2007 - Briefed Joel Bagnell and Rajeev Venkayya at the WH on the rolling out of justification for classified research. Some friendly tension between Joel and me in that they wanted us (CDC, FDA, HHS, NIH to sign off on the roll-out document and there was a phrase in there that did not clarify that we do not do classified research. It asked us to justify with all of our research why it should be unclassified making the default position that everything should be classified. I had them change it to read that we should explain why it is not classified as opposed to justifying it as being unclassified. We came to an agreement. April 24, 2007 - Had lunch with Scooter Libby today at the Daily Grill in the Bethesda Hyatt. Hot muggy and sunny day. Has been cold up until now. Scooter looked very worn and down. I gave him a big hug and he looked like he was going to have tears. I asked about the trial and he said that they really expected a not guilty verdict and that is why they did not pull out all of the stops and ask the VP to testify. Also, it was clear that Reggie Walton was "preening" for this since he had the courtroom wired for the press and bloggers which they never do. He proclaimed complete innocence and is hoping that Bush will pardon him. He is sad that he has not been pardoned already and feels that perhaps if it looks like he will go to jail the POTUS will then pardon him. He feels that there are politicos in the WH who do not want the POTUS to pardon him since it will make the Administration look even worse that the 30% approval ratings. I told Scooter that I could not imagine that the POTUS will allow him to go to jail, particularly with the VP pulling so hard for Scooter. I spent the rest of the time briefing Scooter about biodefense updates. Also, had meeting at the White House called by Rajeev Venkayya and Mike Magan on XDR-TB including reps from CDC (Julie G. and Ken Castro), HHS (Craig Vanderwagen, Gerry Parker) DoD, DHS, State, USAID, Mark Dybul. Bottom line was to coordinate the multi-Agency efforts. Good meeting. We (NIAID) has already put together a strategic plan as has CDC and so HHS looked good. Mark Dybul mentioned that the Policy Time with the POTUS on PEPFAR funding did not go well today. April 25, 2007 - Had a lunch/reception at the White House followed by a presentation by Laura Bush and President Bush in the Rose Garden to celebrate the first ever Malaria