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The Scooter Libby Case –

By Theresa Fritz Camoriano

The conviction of Scooter Libby should cause all Americans to shake in their boots.  In this case, the prosecutor knew within a couple of weeks that no crime had been committed.  Nevertheless, he proceeded to use the vast resources of government to investigate the non-crime, questioning Libby about it until he was able to create a possible crime and then prosecute Libby for perjury and obstruction of justice.  Libby did not “out” a CIA operative and harm national security.  His mistake was that he tried to cooperate with the investigators. 

Clearly, this was a politically-motivated prosecution, not a prosecution that was needed to protect national security.  These kinds of political witch hunts, which use the vast government resources and long arm of the law to attack political enemies, are not supposed to happen in America.

If we have learned nothing else from the Martha Stewart and Scooter Libby cases, we should have learned that, if investigators ever start asking us questions, we should not answer, no matter how innocent we know ourselves to be, because any mistake we make could be used to send us to prison.

See also:

Scapegoat – Linda Chavez [O]n Oct. 1, 2003, Armitage notified Secretary of State Colin Powell that he was Novak's source, and that within days, that information was transmitted to the Justice Department. Yet on Dec. 31, 2003, Patrick Fitzgerald was appointed to find out who leaked Valerie Plame's name to Robert Novak and to determine whether the leak broke the law. It is clear that from the beginning, Fitzgerald's only interest was in directly implicating the vice president in the leak. When he was unable to do so, he decided to punish Scooter Libby for protecting his boss. http://www.townhall.com/columnists/LindaChavez/2007/03/09/scapegoat

Meatgrinder Politics – Thomas Sowell Patrick Fitzgerald insisted on keeping the investigation going for three years -- and keeping secret the fact that there was no crime involved and no mystery about who leaked. …A man's life has been ruined because his memories differed from that of others -- whose memories also differed among themselves -- and media liberals are exulting as if their conspiracy theories had been vindicated….

More important, how are we to expect highly qualified people, with far better options than a government job, to risk being put through the Washington meatgrinder because of politics, media hype and special prosecutors who can create crimes in the course of an investigation, when there was none to begin with? http://www.townhall.com/columnists/ThomasSowell/2007/03/09/meatgrinder_politics

It wasn’t about Libby at all – Mona Charen This is a textbook case of the criminalization of policy differences. If Bush haters believe that the president "lied us into war," they are fully entitled to support a Democrat in 2008. But their blood lust will not be satisfied with that. Libby must be led away in handcuffs….Further, while there was no underlying offense in the Libby case, i.e., there was no violation of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act, there was an underlying offense in the Clinton case -- the sexual harassment of Paula Jones. Indeed, the former president paid Ms. Jones $850,000 to settle the case.

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MonaCharen/2007/03/09/it_wasnt_about_libby_at_all

The lost scandal – Robert Novak The Libby trial uncovered no plot hatched in the White House. … With no underlying crime even claimed, the only question was whether Libby had consciously and purposefully lied to FBI agents and the grand jury about how he learned of Mrs. Wilson's identity. … Armitage had turned himself in to the Justice Department three months before Fitzgerald entered the case, without notifying the White House or releasing me from my requirement of confidentiality. … David Boies said Fitzgerald never should have prosecuted Libby because there was no underlying criminal violation. Boies scoffed at Fitzgerald's contention that Libby had obstructed him from exposing criminal activity. Boies, who represented Al Gore in the 2000 election dispute, is hardly a Bush sympathizer. http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RobertDNovak/2007/03/08/the_lost_scandal

What’s in a lie? – Emmett Tyrrell From the moment we discovered that no crime had been committed in revealing that Wilson's wife was a CIA employee, the Libby trial has been a farce. http://www.townhall.com/columnists/EmmettTyrrell/2007/03/08/whats_in_a_lie

The left:  character assassins Just to be clear: Scooter Libby faces jail time for trying to cover up the fact that he did not commit a crime. In fact, at no time does the Special Prosecutor ever allege that the underlying crime he was investigating ever took place. It never happened. http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DavidStrom/2007/03/07/the_left_character_assassins

Liberal la-la land - I almost understand why so many Americans are much more interested in following the story of Anna Nicole or the newly bald Britney Spears. In some ways, they are closer to reality than the coverage of political stories we are getting. http://www.townhall.com/columnists/LorieByrd/2007/03/09/liberal_la-la_land

Shooting Elephants in a barrel – Ann Coulter This (the Scooter Libby conviction) makes it official: It's illegal to be Republican. http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=19720

Remember everything or go to prison – Charles Krauthammer

Everyone agrees that Fitzgerald's perjury case against Libby hung on the testimony of NBC's Tim Russert. Libby said that he heard about Plame from Russert. Russert said he had never discussed it. The jury members who have spoken said they believed Russert. … This demonstration of Russert's fallibility was never shown to the jury. The judge did not allow it. He was upset with the defense because it would not put Libby on the stand -- his perfect Fifth Amendment right -- after hinting in the opening statement that it might. He therefore denied the defense a straightforward demonstration of the fallibility of the witness whose testimony was most decisive.
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/column.aspx?UrlTitle=remember_everything_--_or_goes_to_prison&ns=CharlesKrauthammer&dt=03/09/2007&page=2

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