An inconvenient truth about Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald

If the legal gig doesn't work out, Patrick Fitzgerald might consider a second career as a pitcher in the Major Leagues or public relations hack. The spin he's able to put on a fastball when briefing the news media will make for a great line item on his next resume.

Sweetness and Light points out the Very Misleading Statements of Patrick Fitzgerald when addressing members of the press corps about the Libby case. Mr. Fitzgerald makes frequent reference to Valerie Plame's "classified" employment at the CIA. While anyone from the Janitor to the Director has a "classified" status at the agency, the Special Prosecutor fails to mention that there are several levels of security "classifications".

From his statements the casual observer would be left with the impression that Valerie Plame had been a covert operative of the CIA which in fact she was not. Had that been the case, Richard Armitage the man who revealed her employment as an analyst with the agency would be the one facing jail time.

When confronted by a reporter that Richard Armitage came forward as the leaker and that this fact was known to him from the begining of his investigation the Special Prosecutor spins a story line fit for Charlotte's Web.

Mr. Fitzgerald answers the reporter's question with the following statement as recorded on C-Span here. (Sweetness and Light supplies the transcript of Mr. Fitzgerald's remarks.)

I would say this. It’s not the verdict that justifies the investigation. It’s the facts. And if people would step back and look at what happened here. When the investigation began in the fall of 2003, and then we got appointed to the special counsel at the end of December 2003.

What is now clear is what we knew at that time. By that point in time we knew Mr. Libby had told a story. That what he had told reporters had come not from other government officials, but from reporter Tim Russert.

It’s also now public that by that point in time the FBI had learned that in fact Tim Russert did not tell Mr. Libby that information. In fact, Tim Russert didn’t know it. Tim Russert could not have told him.

The series of events pitched by Mr. Fitzgerald's verbal sliders and fastballs before the Press in no way lines up with reality. What did happen was back in October of 2003 Richard Armitage confessed to the Department of Justice that he was the source of reporter Bob Novak's column in the Washington Post "Mission to Niger" which began this whole three year fiasco. Eleven days later on October 14th of 2003 the FBI interviewed Lewis "Scooter" Libby about what he knew of the Valerie Plame affair which was probably about as much as anyone with an up-to-date subscription to the Washington Post knew at the time. Tim Russert's name did not come up during the Libby interviews until November 14th and 24th of 2003. This tact used by Libby to deflect attention away from himself would be used by Fitzgerald to hang Libby on his legal petard. Fitzgerald had not been brought in to investigate this matter as Special Prosecutor until the end of December of that year. By then the identity of the culprit had been known for two months by investigators!

By the time Fitzgerald arrived on the scene the matter of who leaked Valerie Plame's identity had been settled on October 3rd 2003 with Richard Armitage's confession to the Department of Justice. Case closed! Brilliant investigative work Mr. Special Prosecutor!

Upon his assignment, Patrick Fitzgerald's mandate was to find out who leaked Mrs. Wilson's identity, why was it done, and did it violate the Intelligence Identities Protection Act, the Espionage Act, or some other law. That's all the Special Prosecutor was asked to do. But even with the knowledge of who the source of Bob Novak's column was Mr. Fitzgerald went far beyond his mandate and began skulking around Washington searching for "leakers", giving press conferences, threatening reporters with jail time and looking important.

After three years and millions of dollars spent and hundreds if not thousands of man-hours of legal work expended, Fitzgerald found no conspiracy, no cover-up, no push-back from the neo-cons, no obfuscation from the Bush White House and no proverbial smoking gun. Zero. Zip. Zilch. Nada. Naaada. All he found was a "process crime" of someone who's stories to Federal Agents did not line up with those of others in this whole convoluted mess of an investigation.

And so Mr. Fitzgerald bravely and confidently sallied forth and decided to go after the one thing he can find in a saga where no crime had been committed and no party had been wronged. Mr. Fitzgerald went after a "process crime" committed by an administrative employee who was afraid he'd lose his job. That's the real crime that has been committed in the tale of this sorry, sordid affair.

Bravo Mr. Fitzgerald.

Give yourself a much deserved pat on the back.

Now we can all sleep better at night knowing that you're on the job protecting us from "process criminals" like "Scooter" Libby.

Clarice Feldman issues a call for justice in wake of this pathetic affair.