Andrew McCarthy, himself a former federal prosecutor, warns those eager to leap to Lewis Libby's defense against grasping too much at the fact that Libby's indictment yesterday was "merely" for perjury and obstruction of justice.
He says Patrick Fitzgerald's case is built on a stronger foundation: violation of espionage laws by Libby and tempered only by prosecutorial restraint.
The indictment charges the mere fact that Plame worked at the CIA was classified information. (“At all relevant times … Valerie Wilson was employed by the CIA, and her employment status was classified.”)It is worth noting that many people, including me, have been wrong about this. I assumed that the fact that she was a CIA employee was well-known and not classified, but that some aspect of her relationship with CIA was covert and classified. The latter may be true (Fitzgerald, as he should have, declined to comment on it), but it turns out to be not so important because the very fact that she was a CIA employee was classified. It really doesn’t matter whether we think it should have been classified or not. The fact is that it was. People privileged to handle classified information well know that they mustn’t disclose it even if they personally think there is no good reason for it to be classified or that some higher purpose of theirs would be served by disclosing it.
So, if the allegations in the indictment are true, then Libby did obtain classified information in his official capacity and he did share it with reporters who were not entitled to receive it. The rest of the equation is: did he act willfully?
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[W]hile Libby may have had a bad purpose as far as the law is concerned, he did not have a purpose to do damage to the country or help an enemy. That is what the espionage act is most concerned about. Under the circumstances, he was given the benefit of the doubt on his state of mind. I think that was an appropriate exercise of restraint on Fitzgerald’s part. The charges brought are serious ones. There was no reason to bring a questionable one just to rebut a talking point about how it’s only a cover-up and not a crime.
More serious reasons not to listen to glib excusers here and here.
Related:
• Office of Special Counsel
• Text of the indictment (PDF)
• Video - Patrick J. Fitzgerald, Oct. 28 press conference via C-SPAN (Real)