Free Republic

U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald — who toppled two Illinois governors and a top aide to the former vice president, and also went after the Chicago mob, a notorious police commander accused of torture and even international terrorists — is stepping down. The corruption-busting prosecutor said he will leave the post June 30 after serving nearly 11 years in the post, longer than anyone else in Illinois history. In a written statement, Fitzgerald said he told the White House, Attorney General Eric Holder, and U.S. Sens. Richard Durbin and Mark Kirk about his decision Wednesday morning. “When I was selected...

WASHINGTON - Five journalists must identify the government officials who leaked them details about a scientist under scrutiny in the 2001 anthrax attacks, a federal judge said Monday. U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton ordered the reporters to cooperate with Steven J. Hatfill, who accused the Justice Department and FBI of violating the federal Privacy Act by giving the media information about the FBI's investigation of him. The reporters named in the opinion are Michael Isikoff and Daniel Klaidman of Newsweek, Allan Lengel of The Washington Post, Toni Locy, formerly of USA Today, and James Stewart, formerly of CBS News....

Time for all good FReepers to FReep a poll. The moonbats have skewed this poll in the wrong direction. http://www.indystar.com and go to the Cyberpoll "Do you support President Bush's decision to commute Scooter Libby's sentence?"

WASHINGTON (AP) - Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is disputing President Bush's assertion that the 30-month prison sentence given to former White House aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby was "excessive." That was 1 of the reasons the president cited in commuting the sentence hours after a federal appeals court ruled that Libby could not remain free while fighting the case. Fitzgerald said in a statement that Libby was sentenced under the same laws as other criminals. He also said "It is fundamental to the rule of law that all citizens stand before the bar of justice as equals."

WASHINGTON - Former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby has shown no remorse for corrupting the legal system and deserves to spend 2 1/2 to 3 years in prison for obstructing the CIA leak investigation, Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald said Friday. Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney and an assistant to President Bush, is the highest-ranking White House official convicted since the Iran-Contra affair two decades ago. In court documents, Fitzgerald rejected criticism from Libby's supporters who said the leak investigation had spun out of control. Fitzgerald denied the prosecution was politically motivated and...

Fitzgerald's Cover-Up It's time to hold the special prosecutor accountable. Wednesday, April 4, 2007 12:01 a.m. EDT For a prosecutor who claims to be a truth-seeker, Patrick Fitzgerald sure can be secretive. Even now that the Scooter Libby trial is over and his "leak" investigation is all but closed, the unaccountable special counsel wants to keep his arguments for creating a Constitutional showdown over reporters and their sources under lock and key. Mr. Fitzgerald is fighting release of the affidavits he filed with the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to justify compelling two reporters to testify about their conversations with...

WASHINGTON - Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, who spent years investigating the 2003 leak of a CIA operative's identity, told lawmakers Wednesday that he could offer little help during congressional hearings on the leak. Rep. Henry Waxman (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif., asked Fitzgerald last week to meet with members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which will hold hearings on the Bush administration's handling of CIA operative Valerie Plame's classified employment status. Plame's identity was leaked to reporters after her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, began criticizing the Bush administration's prewar intelligence on Iraq. In a letter to...

The verdict is in: Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, should be pardoned. At least according to two of the jurors who found him guilty of perjury and obstruction of justice. Asked about the possibility of a pardon, juror Ann Redington said, "I would like him to get one," and added, "I don't want him to go to jail." Asked how he would feel if Libby were pardoned, the ubiquitous juror Denis Collins said, "I would really not care." The jarring spectacle of jurors expressing support for, or at least indifference toward, an executive act...

It is, officially, a crime to support the President and his policies. That is, after all, why Scooter Libby is facing prison time. In a nutshell, special prosecutor Fitzgerald knew that no crime had been committed from the onset of his investigation. He was made aware that Richard Armitage was the person who revealed the identity of Valerie Plame in the very beginning of his investigation. Rather than do the honorable thing and just shut down his search and save the taxpayers millions of dollars, Fitzgerald chose to use his unchecked power and find a Bush administration official to persecute....

There are lies and there are memory lapses. Bill Clinton denied under oath having sex with Monica Lewinsky. Unless you're Wilt Chamberlain, sex is not the kind of thing that you forget easily. Sandy Berger denied stuffing classified documents in his pants, an act not quite as elaborate as sex, but still involving a lot of muscle memory, and unlikely to have been honestly forgotten. Scooter Libby has just been convicted for four felonies that could theoretically give him 25 years in jail for ... what? Misstating when he first heard a certain piece of information, namely the identity of...

Lewis Libby has now been found guilty of perjury and obstruction of justice for lies that had absolutely no legal consequence. It was not a crime to reveal Valerie Plame's name because she was not a covert agent. If it had been a crime, Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald could have wrapped up his investigation with an indictment of the State Department's Richard Armitage on the first day of his investigation since it was Armitage who revealed her name and Fitzgerald knew it. With no crime to investigate, Fitzgerald pursued a pointless investigation into nothing, getting a lot of White House...

WASHINGTON - Saying “I don’t want him to go to jail,” a member of the jury that convicted I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby of perjury and obstruction of justice in the CIA leak case called Wednesday for President Bush to pardon Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff. The woman, Ann Redington, said in an interview on MSNBC’s “Hardball” that she cried when the verdicts against Libby were read Tuesday. She said Libby seemed to be “a really nice guy.” Redington said “it was very difficult — it was hard” to vote to convict Libby, who was found guilty of...

Shortly before he was inaugurated for his second term, President Bush was asked why no one was held responsible for the mistakes of the first. "We had an accountability moment," he replied, "and that's called the 2004 elections." Two years and a stinging midterm election later, Bush is having another accountability moment, but this one isn't working out as well. The conviction of former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby has coincided with a string of investigations into the mistreatment of injured soldiers and the purge of federal prosecutors, putting the operations of his administration into harsh relief....

The nearly-four year investigation of the Valerie Plame leak ended yesterday with one of the most derivative convictions in the history of Washington jurisprudence: Lewis “Scooter” Libby was convicted of offering misleading testimony to an inconclusive investigation of a non-crime. Special Investigator Patrick Fitzgerald knew at the outset of his investigation that outing Valerie Plame was not a criminal offense, that antiwar dove Richard Armitage leaked her name, and that the administration had acted to refute lies Joseph Wilson told during wartime. Pushing forward his inquiry under these circumstances looks very much like either extravagant self-justification or entrapment. It is...

Cross Posted: THE MINORITY REPORTI lack the inside baseball connections to know who Mel Sembler is, but I’m convinced the man is a great American. He has taken the personal initiative to rise up against the malignant injustice of our nation’s latest judicial witch-hunt. In the letter below, he requests our help. “As Scooter’s lawyer, Ted Wells, said today, we are all disappointed in the verdict. His attorneys will seek a new trial and if that’s denied, they will appeal. The defense team fervently believes in Scooter’s innocence and intends to continue fighting to establish Scooter’s innocence. Speaking for the...

Breaking on MSNBC

Jurors have been deliberating since Wednesday, Feb. 21. As they left for the weekend Friday, they passed U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton a note. "We would like clarification of the term 'reasonable doubt,'" jurors wrote. "Specifically, is it necessary for the government to present evidence that it is not humanly possible for someone not to recall an event in order to find guilt beyond a reasonable doubt."

WASHINGTON - Notes from the jury deliberating the fate of ex-White House aide Lewis (Scooter) Libby gave a hint there might be one or two holdouts on a conviction. "We would like clarification of the term 'reasonable doubt,'" the jury wrote to U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton on the eighth day of deliberations. "Is it necessary for the government to present evidence that it is not humanly possible for someone not to recall an event in order to find guilt beyond a reasonable doubt?" The notes from the 11 jurors weighing the fate of Vice President Cheney's former chief of...

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- Jurors asked for the definition of "reasonable doubt" Friday after completing a shortened, eighth day of deliberations Friday in the perjury trial of ex-White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. "We would like clarification of the term 'reasonable doubt,'" jurors wrote. "Specifically, is it necessary for the government to present evidence that it is not humanly possible for someone not to recall an event in order to find guilt beyond a reasonable doubt." The note offered the first real glimpse into the deliberations and suggested jurors were discussing Libby's memory. Prosecutors say he lied about conversations he...

WASHINGTON - Jurors completed a shortened, eighth day of deliberations Friday without a verdict in the perjury trial of ex-White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. They resume work on Monday. U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton granted their request to leave three hours early Friday to attend to personal, professional and medical obligations. On their way out, they handed Walton two questions, which will be addressed in court Monday. The questions were to be released publicly Friday afternoon. The seven women and four men got the case near midday on Feb. 22. They normally work from 9 a.m. to 5...