[Dolphy]

No, I agree, it would seem part of his charge would have been to determine that a crime had occurred. But then, he was handed the case after the DOJ had done some investigation if I remember correctly, why hadn't they confirmed her status?

That still leaves me with the other question. I have understood through all of this that in order to be charged, a leaker would have had to have known Plame's status. Wouldn't Fitzgerald have come to these crossroads regarding her status when one would assume he tried to pin Libby with the original leaking charge? Wouldn't he have had to determine that Libby had knowledge?

[Wolfstar]

That still leaves me with the other question. I have understood through all of this that in order to be charged, a leaker would have had to have known Plame's status. Wouldn't Fitzgerald have come to these crossroads regarding her status when one would assume he tried to pin Libby with the original leaking charge? Wouldn't he have had to determine that Libby had knowledge?

That's the whole conundrum in this case, Dolphy. To this day we, the taxpayers footing the bill for this charade, still don't know if a crime was committed when Noval revealed Plame's name. As so many others have said, if there was no crime, then there can be no perjury. Perjury has to be material to the underlying crime.