Prosecute the prosecutor

Scooter Libby re-redux

As noted before, in the Valerie Plame affair special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald knew in advance there was no crime and knew Scooter Libby wasn’t involved in the non-crime but brought him before a grand jury anyway.

George Jonas makes a good point. If misleading a grand jury is a crime then Fitzgerald himself should get a dose of justice:

It's grandstanding prosecutors who are politicizing justice,... I wouldn't jail Libby for 30 hours, but assuming he deserved 30 months for what he did, Fitzgerald should be looking at 30 years.

Update: Robert Novak sheds some more light on this in an interview with Hugh Hewitt:

HH: Let me ask you, I’m bored silly by the Plame affair, Robert Novak, but I do have one question about your opinion? Why was Armitage not charged if Valerie Plame’s identity was a secret, and Patrick Fitzgerald was investigating its leak?

RN: Because there was no crime committed under the Intelligence Agents Identity Act. That bill was passed, Hugh, to protect intelligence agents overseas from being outed by left wing forces, and then marked for assassination. It was really a readly serious act, nothing like somebody sitting in Langley in the CIA Headquarters as Mrs. Wilson was, doing analysis. There was no crime committed under that act, and therefore, he was not charged. And so that is the whole problem with the Libby indictment. He was charged for obstructing justice when there was no underlying crime committed, or allegedly committed.

HH: Why did Fitzgerald, do you think, in your opinion, continue on with the investigation once Armitage had revealed it was he who was the leaker?

RN: Because…you know, when he entered the case, he was told that Armitage was the leaker. That information was given to him, because it had been known for three weeks before he was named as special prosecutor. And therefore, I think the Justice Department should have bitten the bullet and taken care of him itself. Why he did not reveal that is something that is in the mysteries of the whole, strange relationship of special prosecutors. It is very difficult for them to say no crime was committed, you’ve named me for nothing, and I’ve established a staff for nothing. But that’s in fact what he should have done.

Which confirms that the prosecutor Fitzgerald was guilty of misleading everyone including the grand jury.

Scooter Libby redux

Robert Novak, in his new memoir, belatedly cleared the air about the Valerie Plame affair which resulted in Scooter Libby’s jail sentence for fibbing to the special prosecutor.

From Novak’s interview with Richard Armitage, then deputy secretary of state:

I then asked Armitage a question that had been puzzling me but, for the sake of my future peace of mind, would better have been left unasked.

Why would the CIA send Joseph Wilson, not an expert in nuclear proliferation and with no intelligence experience, on the mission to Niger?

"Well," Armitage replied, "you know his wife works at CIA, and she suggested that he be sent to Niger." "His wife works at CIA?" I asked. "Yeah, in counterproliferation."
[...]
After Patrick Fitzgerald, the U.S. attorney in Chicago named as a special prosecutor in the case, indicated to me he knew Armitage was my source, I cooperated fully with him.

So, even though the prosecutor knew who committed the ‘crime’ he was supposedly investigating, he harassed Libby, put him on trial for obstruction and had him jailed. Meanwhile the known ‘culprit’, Armitage, was let completely off the hook.

All of this suggests the prosecutor knew there was no crime to investigate and pushed the case for the sake of politics and press notoriety.

President Bush was right to spring Libby from jail. A full pardon would have been better.

Scooter Libby and American ‘justice’

Today "Scooter" Libby was handed a sentence of two-and-a-half years for ‘lying’ about a ‘crime’ prosecutors couldn’t prove had been committed (‘outing’ CIA employee Valerie Plame) - a crime for which no one was ever charged. Seems a tad unjust.

However, there’s a remedy close at hand. As this NRO editorial concludes:

President Bush should pardon Libby, and do it now.

I have to agree. In general, though, Libby’s case does have a familiar ring to it:

- Martha Stewart convicted of lying to prosecutors in declaring her innocence of a crime (insider trading) for which she was never charged.

- Conrad Black now being pers-, er, prosecuted for a long list of ‘crimes’ for which there is, at best, dubious evidence.

The American justice system seems to be making a mockery of itself. Someone needs to take a closer look at how the special prosecutor does his job.