Posted on 10/22/2005 7:16:36 PM PDT by churchillbuff
At the end of his long opinion on the jailing of Miller, which I have linked, Judge Tatel said that the reporters' privilege yields, in this case, to “THE GRAVITY OF THE REPORTED CRIME.”(My caps)
I don't like Laurence O'Donnell, but he's stating a fact when he reports the following:
"Judge Tatel’s opinion has eight blank pages in the middle of it where he discusses the secret information the prosecutor has supplied only to the judges to convince them that the testimony he is demanding is worth sending reporters to jail to get. The gravity of the suspected crime is presumably very well developed in those redacted pages. Later, Tatel refers to “[h]aving carefully scrutinized [the prosecutor’s] voluminous classified filings.” "
O'Donnell continues: "Some of us have theorized that the prosecutor may have given up the leak case in favor of a perjury case, but Tatel still refers to it simply as a case “which involves the alleged exposure of a covert agent.” Tatel wrote a 41-page opinion in which he seemed eager to make new law -- a federal reporters’ shield law -- but in the end, he couldn’t bring himself to do it in this particular case. In his final paragraph, he says he “might have” let Cooper and Miller off the hook “[w]ere the leak at issue in this case less harmful to national security.” "
""Tatel’s colleagues are at least as impressed with the prosecutor’s secret filings as he is. One simply said “Special Counsel’s showing decides the case.” ""
""All the judges who have seen the prosecutor’s secret evidence firmly believe he is pursuing a very serious crime, and they have done everything they can to help him get an indictment. ""
"That's funny, but what do you say about the judges' comments - - their statement that this is a serious case, with serious evidence?"
I wonder if the Judge's comments really mean anything. So often in Washington, it is not the seriousness of the evidence that counts, it's the gravity of the charges alleged...
We'll know this week.
Wilson was sent to Niger by partisan hacks in the CIA... his wife being one of them. Cooper & Miller purposely tried to bait Rove into leaking her name... but failed and the real 'source' that Miller went to jail for... was WILSON.
For a reporter to be jailed to get at a "source" there must be a serious crime alleged. That's the reason the judge called it a serious crime. (And a violation of the Agee law would be a serious crime, if it occurred.)
The redacted pages are probably 1) information gathered by the grand jury, and/or 2) related to Plame's covert status. Both of which would be protected.
The judge said this is about the exposing of a covert agent. And he should know what he is talking about.
I'm amazed at how eagerly so many want to fly off the handle and try to develop this into something it is not. There is nothing to suggest that anything else has ever been investigated. No reports from the media, no reports from those who have testified, nothing to indicate than anyone except who might know about the circumstances of the so-called Plame leak have testified.
This is just about muddying the waters. It's crackpotism. Which should be no surprise when you see that preeminent crackpot Larry O'Donnell behind it.
Perhaps the crime is treason committed against a sitiing President during a time of war?
...the gravity of the suspected crime...
There was no reported crime, only a suspected one.
Was your choice of word a slip or intentional, to increase the alarm of the post? The SP is investigating to see if there was a crime, right? Just curious.
The newspapers may have been devoid but today's airwaves covered two matters -- possible indictments and Hurricane Wilma.
Yaya, desperately looking for anything to veer this away from Rove/Libby/WH, the more I read post #79 the more sense it makes. I'm not quite buying that Wilson's may have revealed classified info in his NY Times Op Ed article as it was probably carefully vetted by his wife and/or John Kerry before publication, but I plan to find it just to satisfy myself.
You might be right about the NYT Op Ed. But I just find it hard to believe that information about CIA's acquisition of information on Niger-Iraq-uranium was not secret. If it wasn't classified, it should have been.
That is true and the media is IMO guilty of acts meant to topple the USA, as are the actions of the Progressive caucus, Democrats, Hollywood, Academia, but that being said the Media got their info from somewhere. Is it a coordinated effort with the Anti-American elements of the CIA and State dept? Of course it is but we can only hope at this point that the leaks being investigated are in fact the ones that lead to Miller tipping off the Unholy Landers and other similar treasonous information and disinformation that was intended to undermine an American president. Common sense tells me that this is not about Rove and Libby (at least not from the available info) but my gut says don't trust anybody. Not Fitzgerald and certainly not a DC grand jury.
By the way is their anyone who you love to punch right in the mouth more than Howie little man Dean? I swear out of anyone that I would meet the urge to slug him is so overwhelming I honestly believe I would do it. Sorry I've been at work all day stewing over his latest comments.
If Fitz had slam-dunk evidence of a "serious threat to national security" nearly a year ago, what the hell is taking him so long to wrap this up? And NOTHING I've heard about this leak case suggests a "serious threat to national security." That's either overblown rhetoric from partisan judges or the real evidence and the real crime is something we haven't even heard about in the press.
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