Prosecutor in CIA leak case seen as incorruptible

[hang a left]

Prosecutor in CIA leak case seen as incorruptible

By Andrew Stern
Reuters
Monday, October 24, 2005; 8:32 AM

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The U.S. prosecutor at the center of a CIA leak probe focused on the White House has relentlessly pursued politicians, mobsters and suspected terrorists.

Plucked from New York in 2001 to run the Chicago office of the Justice Department, Patrick Fitzgerald, the Brooklyn-born son of Irish immigrants, has a reputation as an incorruptible prosecutor in the mold of Chicago crime-fighter Eliot Ness, who took on Al Capone's criminal empire.


Fitzgerald has won convictions of the 1993 bombers of New York's World Trade Center and members of the Gambino crime family, and he secured an indictment of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, whom Fitzgerald has said he would like to try some day.

Fitzgerald was chosen in 2003 to investigate the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame to syndicated columnist Robert Novak after her diplomat husband, Joseph Wilson, criticized the Iraq war. The probe has led to interviews with President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney and four sessions of grand jury testimony by Bush political guru Karl Rove.

Lawyers and other sources involved in the case said on Sunday that Fitzgerald appeared to be laying the groundwork for indictments in the case this week, including possible charges of perjury and obstruction of justice.



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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/24/AR2005102400448.html

[ET Awful]

1. Kind of like a big-time Elliot Ness :)

Hell, he even has the Chicago connection.

[Joe Chi Minh]

7. Elliot O'Ness.

[BlueEyedSon]

2. Isn't that what they are SUPPOSED to be?

[ed murrow]

3. Prosecutor in CIA leak case seen as incorruptible

Please say its so Joe

I am anxiously waiting the dual indictments of Libby & Rove

[swag]

4. Conservatives are speaking up for Fitzgerald's integrity

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5158891

Via KOS:

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/10/24/234943/89

The arch-conservative National Review's Andy McCarthy:

http://corner.nationalreview.com/05_10_23_corner-archive.asp#080587

"I'm too busy today to be monitoring the media, but Ive gotten a lot of questions about this from people who say some conservatives are hitting the airwaves with preemptive suggestions that my friend Pat Fitzgerald may not be as apolitical as his press clippings indicate. In particular, I am being pointed to favorable comments made by Senator Schumer about Pat's competence and integrity.

Let me just say this. Pat is at least as apolitical as his press clippings suggest. And just because Senator Schumer says something doesn't make it wrong.

Pat Fitzgerald is the best prosecutor I have ever seen. By a mile. He is also the straightest shooter I have ever seen - by at least that much. And most importantly, he is a good man.

This investigation has gone on for 22 months. Most of the evidence was collected before autumn 2004 - the last year of delay has mainly been caused by reporters challenging subpoenas in the federal courts.

If Pat were political - or, worse, if he somehow had it in for the Bush administration - it was fully within his power to return indictments in the weeks before the November elections, which would almost certainly have cinched things for Senator Kerry. It is something, I am quite certain, it would never even have occurred to him to do. The only thing the guy I know would do is bring charges or close the case without charges when the facts of the investigation warranted doing so. "

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/10/24/0618/9162

Ashcroft's deputy James Comey:

"What's been interesting is seeing the media accounts and the columnists portray him as some sort of runaway prosecutor. That makes me smile, because there is no prosecutor who is less of a runaway than this guy."

[upi402]

5. Editor & Publisher link

http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001351156


"Mr. Libby's notes indicate that Mr. Cheney had gotten his information about Ms. Wilson from George J. Tenet, the director of central intelligence, in response to questions from the vice president about Mr. Wilson.

[mirandapriestly]

6. Hmm, sounds like Cheney asked the CIA if they "had anything" on Joe Wilson