Fitzgerald’s Eight Pages
Let’s unseal the reason he put Miss Run Amok in jail.
Apart from Scooter Libby, the biggest loser by far in the Patrick Fitzgerald probe has been the press. The “leak” investigation that every liberal editorial board demanded has already sent one reporter to jail, and the damage is only going to get worse.
Thanks to the disastrous New York Times legal strategy, the D.C. Circuit of Appeals dealt a major blow to a reporter’s ability to protect his sources. Prosecutors everywhere will now be more inclined to call reporters to testify, under threat of prison time. And if Mr. Libby’s case goes to trial, at least three reporters will be called as witnesses for the prosecution. Just wait until defense counsel starts examining their memories and reporting habits, not to mention the dominant political leanings in the newsrooms of NBC, Time magazine and the New York Times. “Meet the Press,” indeed.
Rather than join this parade of masochism, we thought we’d try to speed things along, as well as end one of the remaining mysteries in the probe. That’s why Dow Jones & Co., this newspaper’s parent company, filed a motion late Wednesday requesting that the federal district court unseal eight pages of redacted information that Mr. Fitzgerald used to justify throwing Judith Miller of the New York Times in the slammer.
The pages were part of Judge David Tatel’s concurring opinion in the ruling against Ms. Miller and Time magazine’s Matthew Cooper. Judge Tatel said the eight pages showed that, with his “voluminous classified filings,” Mr. Fitzgerald had “met his burden of demonstrating that the information [sought from the reporters] is both critical and unobtainable from any other source.”
The pages remain sealed, but now that Mr. Fitzgerald has indicted Mr. Libby and said “the substantial bulk” of his probe is “completed,” there’s no reason to keep those pages secret. The indictment itself discloses the nature and “major focus” of Mr. Fitzgerald’s grand jury probe, including the fact that Valerie Plame worked for the CIA. The special counsel’s own extensive public discussion of the facts in the case should also have vitiated any protection from disclosure under grand jury rule of evidence 6(e). Future prosecutors and judges trying to decide whether to throw a reporter in jail should be able to inspect the evidence in this case, which will be an influential precedent.
I encourage you to read this article.
November 4, 2005 - 01:52 PM on November 4th, 2005
It’s ironic that the liberal media is going to do more time in this case than anyone in President Bush’s administration.
November 4, 2005 - 01:56 PM on November 4th, 2005
1, that is because the MSM crossed a line that they shouldn’t have in taking sides in a political fight and breaking laws to do so.
November 5, 2005 - 03:50 PM on November 5th, 2005
We will all see a-lot more Damage to come out of this case.