Plame-Wilson Case: Much Ado About Nothing

Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald (or Gerald Fitzpatrick; I can never remember which) has spent three years and millions of dollars investigating a non-crime. And he is complaining because today he only has three hours to make his closing arguments to jurors after a month-long trial.

Fitzgerald was appointed to determine if a crime had been committed in the 'outing' of Valerie Plame as a covert agent of the CIA. Plame is married to Joe Wilson who, after a trip to Niger to investigate the White House's claim that Saddam Hussein tried to obtain yellowcake uranium from Niger, wrote an op-ed that said there was no evidence for the claim and that the supposedly supporting documents were forgeries. The media and Democrats insisted that some White House insider (Karl Rove, they hoped) revealed her identity in order to cast doubt on Wilson's credibility. He was sent to Niger by the CIA and some believe that his wife was instrumental in setting up the trip.

Here is what I find wrong with this case:

• Valerie Plame was not a covert CIA agent at the time she was 'outed.' She had not operated covertly for several years before the Niger trip took place. According to her friends and neighbors it was common knowledge that she worked for the CIA. So how can it be a crime to reveal the identity of a CIA employee when it is already commonly known? Fitzgerald apparently believed that it was because her identity was revealed by a government official without the authority to do so and because she was still 'officially' considered to be covert. (I'm charging you with theft for taking a mattress from the public dump because the original owner still believes that the mattress belongs to him.)

• Though Fitzgerald apparently felt that a crime had been committed (he pursued it for three years), he was unable to bring charges against anyone for revealing Plame's identity as a covert CIA agent. But he did charge a staff member of the Vice President, I. Lewis Libby, with lying to a federal investigator about when and what he knew about Plame and when and what he told someone else about when and what he knew (makes my head spin). Libby says that he didn't intentionally provide false information; that he may have mispoken due to his poor memory of how events unfolded.

• It was discovered -- but not by Fitzgerald's investigation -- that someone other than a White House insider was the person who first mentioned to a reporter that Plame worked for the CIA. Richard Armitage, Deputy Secretary of State under Colin Powell, admitted that he was the leaker. Armitage was certainly no insider; he was known to oppose many White House policies. The media and Democrats were surely devastated by this news, but silent. But none of this deterred Fitzgerald; he proceeded as if nothing had happened. Libby was charged with lying to cover up a crime that he didn't commit. And Fitzgerald took him to court knowing that he nor any of his closest associates were responsible for the leak and he is still vigorously pursuing his prosecution. (Well, I know now that you had nothing to do with the bank robbery but I'm still going to charge and prosecute you for telling me there were only three male robbers when actually there were three male robbers and one female robber.)

The crime in this case is the one foisted on the taxpayers by the media and Patrick Fitzgerald. He's another out-of-control prosecutor.

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