WP: Letter Shows Authority to Expand CIA Leak Probe Was Given in '04

[Pirate Smile]

Letter Shows Authority to Expand CIA Leak Probe Was Given in '04

By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, October 23, 2005; Page A05

Weeks after he took over the investigation 22 months ago into the unauthorized disclosure of a CIA operative's identity, special counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald got authority from the Justice Department to expand his inquiry to include any criminal attempts to interfere with his probe, according to a letter posted Friday on Fitzgerald's new Web site.

Fitzgerald is nearing a decision on whether he will prosecute anyone when the federal grand jury term ends Friday. The letter specified that he could investigate and prosecute "perjury, obstruction of justice, destruction of evidence and intimidation of witnesses."

-snip-
In a letter dated Feb. 6, 2004, then-Deputy Attorney General James B. Comey said that he was clarifying, "at your request," the added authority to investigate and prosecute "crimes committed with intent to interfere with your investigation." Fitzgerald's appointment as special counsel on Dec. 30, 2003, after then-Attorney General John D. Ashcroft recused himself, gave him specific authority to investigate "the alleged unauthorized disclosure of a CIA employee's identity," according to another letter from Comey posted on the Web site.

"The fact that he asked for authority that he probably already had, but wanted spelled out, makes it arguable that he had run into something rather quickly," Washington lawyer Plato Cacheris said yesterday.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/22/AR2005102201113.html

[grasswire]

1. wasn't Plato Cacheris the lawyer...

...for someone in the Lewinsky mess? Perhaps Ms. Lewinsky's lawyer?

[demgrrrll]

2. Yes he was. I remember reading his biography around that time.

She had someone else too but I can't remember his name.

[dchill]

3. Yep - Monica Lewinsky and...

a bunch of traitors - Attorney General John Mitchell (Watergate), Fawn Hall (Iran-Contra - worked for Ollie North), Aldrich Ames (turncoat CIA /Russian spy), and Robert Hanssen (FBI agent/Russian spy) are among his "clients."

[Boo Boo]

9. I think I read that he's representing Franklin (AIPAC spy case) too. /nt

[usregimechange]

4. kick

[TacticalPeek]

5. More cowbell.

Fitzgerald's site:

http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/iln/osc/


The letter:

http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/iln/osc/documents/ag_letter_feburary_06_2004.pdf


:evilgrin:

[Quixote1818]

6. This was on Fritz's website Friday

Old news.

[swag]

7. Patrick Fitzgerald, you are no Kenneth Starr.

[dchill]

17. Maybe Fitz doesn't wanna...

work at Pepperdine.

[Demeter]

19. Thank God for That!

One Kenneth Starr is too many.

[hang a left]

8. IMO-This article is notifying whomever it was

that destroyed evidence and threatened witnesses that he is knows about it. I disagree with the poster below who announced that this is "old news" because this letter appeared on Fitzgerald's website on Friday. I read the letter and it did not occur to me that he had asked for a clarification after starting his investigation because it was a possibility he had come up with something rather quickly.

The suspense is almost killing me, really.

[RedEarth]

10. kick

[peacebird]

11. Fitzmas eve meets Groundhog Day... the suspense, the suspense....

Fitzmas Day can't get here soon enough!

[lanlady]

12. what does Cacheris mean?

"The fact that he asked for authority that he probably already had, but wanted spelled out, makes it arguable that he had run into something rather quickly,"

Please decode for me. Does he mean it can be argued that Fitz ran into early in the game? Or by "arguable" does he mean the opposite, debatable?

[Vickers]

13. I read it as: "You gave me this job, I discovered a DOOZY of a crime

right off the bat, and I just want to make sure that you don't pull the rug out from under me before I take your asses down."

:P

Yes, "arguable" in this case probably means "debatable" or perhaps even "likely."

[Jackpine Radical]

14. That is nicely phrased, and is exactly the sense I take from the comment.

It sounds like classic Fitz to make sure that he has all his ducks in a row, too.

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

16. Yes...

... Fitzgerald is crossing his "t's" and dotting his "i's", he didn't want this thrown out on a technicality at some point in the future. I guess you could call it a "procedural" move.

[Demeter]

15. Wow. Just Wow.

Join me on the chorus, now:

"It's beginning to look a lot like Fitzmas

Everywhere you go!

There's a lawyer on every cell, and in each office as well,

the sturdy kind that doesn't mind the dough!

It's beginning to look a lot like Fitzmas! Soon the bells will start.

And the thing that will make them ring are indictments that you bring

Into the BushCo heart!"

[dchill]

18. Excellent!

More kick and snare!