Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald answers questions at a news conference at the Department of Justice in 2005 in which he announced that Lewis "Scooter" Libby was indicted on five counts for crimes in the CIA inquiry leak. (Chicago Tribune photo by Pete Souza)
by Andrew Zajac
Chicago U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald has been lauded as the ultimate call'em-as-I-see'em prosecutor for his relentless pursuit of political corruption in Illinois and, on the national stage, for his investigation of the CIA leak case, which resulted in the perjury conviction of Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, Scooter Libby.
But Attorney General Michael Mukasey (pictured right) didn't sound like a member of the Fitzgerald fan club yesterday when he was asked by Pennsylvania Republican Arlen Specter about the jailing of former New York Times reporter Judith Miller for refusing to cough up her sources to Fitzgerald during the leak investigation.
While Mukasey didn't directly criticize Fitzgerald, he certainly managed to avoid defending the hard line the prosecutor took on Miller's unwillingness to cooperate.
Here's yesterday's exchange between Mukasey and Specter. (The legislation referred to is for a federal shield law that would sharply limit the circumstances under which the government could force reporters to give up information on confidential sources. It is opposed by the Justice Department.)
SEN. SPECTER: Moving to reporters' privilege, in the limited time left, Attorney General Mukasey, what was the justification for keeping reporter Judith Stern (sic; Miller) in jail for 85 days when the source of the leak was known to be Deputy Attorney General (sic; Deputy Secretary of State) Richard Armitage?
ATTY GEN. MUKASEY: Well, as you know, I was not on duty when that case was -- came to the fore. And it's my own view that that case may very well be a better argument against the special counsel than it is in favor of legislation of the sort that's been proposed. I think --
SEN. SPECTER: Well, I'm not prepared to deal with the special counsel, because he's not here. I'd -- if I had Senator Leahy's gavel, I would have brought him in here a while ago, once the case was finished. But it's very germane in evaluating public policy on whether the Department of Justice ought to have the authority to issue a subpoena in the context and move for a contempt citation and hold a reporter in jail for 85 days under very unpleasant circumstances. I can attest to that firsthand. I went to visit her.
ATTY GEN. MUKASEY: There's no such thing as jail under pleasant circumstances. It is an inherent contradiction, and it is something that therefore we use as a last resort, we'll continue to use as a last resort.
SEN. SPECTER: Well, why do you need a resort when you know the leak? When you know who the leaker is, why go after a reporter and keep her in jail?
ATTY GEN. MUKASEY: Well, as I said, that was not --
SEN. SPECTER: I know that would be better addressed to the special counsel.
ATTY GEN. MUKASEY: It would.
SEN. SPECTER: Someday we may have an opportunity to do that. But right now you're all we've got, Attorney General Mukasey, and you're the guy who's pushing the policy. So I think it's a fair question to say to you: Why maintain a policy which gives whoever the prosecutor is the power to do that when you know who the leaker is?
ATTY GEN. MUKASEY: We don't give that power to a prosecutor, for precisely that reason. We require a clearance up through and including the attorney general of the United States.
SEN. SPECTER: The attorney general of the United States is a prosecutor.
My time is up, and I will desist. We will revisit these issues doubtless. I just want to say I have to excuse myself. We have a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act on the floor, and I have an amendment pending. So I'm going to have to excuse myself.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Fitzgerald was named special prosecutor in the leak case in December 2003 by former Deputy Attorney General James Comey, who assumed responsibility for the investigation after former Attorney General John Ashcroft recused himself. Libby was convicted in March 2007. His 30-month sentence was commuted by President Bush.
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Comments
Zajac is realy straining to find a story here, you can tell he wants there to be one.
Posted by: Jeff | July 10, 2008 5:15 PM
Don't forget that Fitzgerald also prosecuted a major terrorism case under Judge Mukasey in the southern district of New York, so they know each other reasonably well, profesionally.
I think the story with Mukasey's entire testimony, including the above, is that Mukasey has shown himself to be a partisan hack who sees his role as White House poodle rather than making sure the law of the land is followed by everyone equally, and federal cases are prosecuted without regard to politics. If anyone believed for a second that Mukasey would be a different animal from Gonzales, we certainly know the answer now.
Posted by: Vulture Breath | July 10, 2008 5:57 PM
I've always thought the progam of Gonzales to fire US Attorneys was really aimed at Fitzgerald because he was closing in on Scooter and Shooter. Like that Sherlock Holmes story where a pattern of murders is set up to deflect attention from one particular murder in the series. (Was it the alphabet murders or something like that?)
Anyway, when one of those "Deputy Attorney General" types was drawing up the list of people to fire and place Fitz in the "average" column, Sen.Durbin caught wind of it and had some fun with it in one of the hearings last July on the firings.
Which led to the observation, if Fitzgerald is just "average", I wouldn't want to be prosecuted by a really good US Attorney.
Posted by: ornery | July 10, 2008 8:54 PM
I think both presidential canidates need to answer the question if Patrick Fitzgerald will be retained in hi sposition here in Chicago and able to continue his work in cleaning-up corruption in Chicago, Cook County, and State of Illinois politics.
Posted by: Terry | July 10, 2008 9:08 PM
The "Scooter" Libby case was a waste of government resources, everyone knows Libby was following VP Cheney's orders. Much more useful would be for a Special Counsel to revisit why in 1996 the government did not take follow-up action after the FBI's confidential informant, Mob killer Greg Scarpa Jr., passed on information from Ramzi Yousef, his cellmate, on the al-Qaeda plans for 9/11 (see peterlance.com for the actual FBI #305 reports). All the government did was ship Scarpa to Supermax to shut him up permanently.
Posted by: Judge Crater | July 10, 2008 11:30 PM
"The "Scooter" Libby case was a waste of government resources, everyone knows Libby was following VP Cheney's orders."
Yes, we know that now....because of the Scooter Libby trial.
Posted by: Vulture Breath | July 11, 2008 10:32 AM
Fitzgerald is no more than an ambulance chaser! There was no
crime in the "outing" Ms. Phlame she was never outed and when Fitzgerald could not prove that he went on a witch hunt. I personally think he should be barred. But I would put money on it that a book is soon to follow.
Posted by: paul | July 11, 2008 1:07 PM
The reason Fitzgerald did not charge Cheney is that Cheney cannot not be charged by DOJ or special counsel, instead he must be impeached.
Cheney's culpability rests on the claim that Cheney and/or Bush can instantly declassify classified information (at all) or, for purely political purposes; to punish Wilson for criticizing their fraudulent case for war in Iraq. Either way Fitzgerald cannot charge Cheney,,, but he can charge Libby for lying and obstructing justice, and he did. and he won.
Mukasey's response about the policy of jailing the journalist who was an eye-witness to a crime, Libby's leak of Plame classified status to Judy Miller, is not the problem here.
The problem is that Mukasey is withholding the transcript of Cheney's interview by Fitzgerald, from review by oversight even though he has no basis in the law to do so.
The could remains over the Vice Presidents office.
Posted by: Cheney leaks Classified CIA info | July 14, 2008 12:08 AM
Five years ago today, Robart Novak leaked Plame's identity in the press.
A cloud remains over Dick Cheney for ordering the leak of a CIA agent's classified identity.
Novak: "Wilson never worked for the CIA, but his wife, Valerie Plame, is an Agency operative on weapons of mass destruction."
Posted by: Cheney leaks Classified CIA info | July 14, 2008 9:58 AM