The Mighty Wurlitzer Sez: Kill Miller
It's "throw Judith Miller Under the Wheels" day at the Power Tools. I guess she's been of all the use she can be to BushCo., and now her Harlequin Romance with Scooter Libby can serve as a good diversion from RoveCo's culpability in Traitorgate. To wit, the willing RoveHo's at Powerline are devoting much ink to dredging up her involvement with the Islamic Charities scandal several years ago, and trying using it to muddy the waters of the Plame investigation.
As he breathlessly strokes himself, Hindlicker announce that "A New York lawyer has another theory, which is plausible. It's also light years beyond anything you'll read on this topic in the newspapers tomorrow."
If true, it's only because even the sloppiest of rags has some kind of editor who would eventually refuse to run such complete fucking bullshit.
Several years ago, Judy Miller and Patrick Fitzgerald previously crossed swords when Miller got wind of an upcoming FBI search of an Islamic charity in New York. Being the stud reporter she is, she promptly called the charity and asked them for a comment -- before the search was executed, both tipping them off and potentially endangering the lives of the FBI agents involved. Fitzgerald was furious, but when he tried to force Miller to give up her sources, she effectively invoked journalistic privilege and managed to evade questioning.
Now, if you are looking for a defense of Judy Miller here, you'll have to look elsewhere. Her actions were traitorous, she endangered the lives of FBI agents, and no doubt she deserved to be thrown in the clink for a very, very long time. But Hindlicker then goes on to reach the stunning conclusion that this is really the information Fitzgerald wants, and that poor lovesick Scooter was just in the wrong place at the wrong time:
If that's right, maybe it's good news for Libby: he's not being set up by the prosecutor, he's just the PR fall guy for Miller and her lawyer, who don't want to mention a discreditable incident about which the public knows nothing. I hope that's the right explanation.Is he on crack?
According to a REAL lawyer, prosecutor Reddhedd:
First of all, a court would not allow [Fitzgerald] to do that because you can't use one case against the other like that as a basis for holding someone. You may want to do so and, in the case of prior convictions, you can use them as a basis for argument against bail or something related, but you can't just sock a defendant or witness in jail on one charge in retribution for another charge -- you have to have evidence of the particular case in order to make something like that stick with a judge. Second, I thought the Islamic Charities case had already closed ages ago....Yeah, I think. In fact, the entire Miller/Libby document leak today smacks of Unka Karl, although the NYT certainly could've got them from Judy and decided to put them up in her defense (so much for "source confidentiality"). If Fitzgerald didn't have those documents before, he's got them now, and if he was getting ready to release his indictments early in the week he's probably been effectively stalled. Much to the detriment of Libby, no doubt, who certainly looks like he's trying to witness tamper in his letters to Judy, but that would certainly meet with the idea of warring camps within BushCo. and the lifeboat mentality that is obviously consuming all of them at the moment.
A move like that would be out of character for Fitz, in my mind -- especially on a case that I am fairly sure has closed out quite a while ago. He's tough, but he doesn't strike me as an asshole. And I know that Judge Tatel would NEVER have allowed something like that, given his record on prior first amendment cases -- that would be absolutely outside the scope of his prior precedents and his philosophy on this sort of thing.
This stinks of a tangent to me, and one that is designed to take the heat off Judy and put it on Fitzgerald to explain his motives. Classic Karl, dontcha think?
Cos with all the scrambling they're doing today, what's really scaring he crap out of them right now is this...
Update: Hindlicker is peddling this same line of bullshit in the Daily Standard. I guess they can't find anyone else gullible (or craven) enough to push it.
(graphics love to The Heretik)
posted by Jane Hamsher @ 10/01/2005 03:19:00 PM
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