Fitzgerald admits White House may have destroyed some leak emails

[rawstory]

RAW STORY has acquired a letter from CIA leak Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald to Vice President Dick Cheney's former Chief of Staff, I. Lewis Libby, who was indicted for allegedly obstructing justice and other charges for his role in the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame.

In the letter, Fitzgerald admits that he has been told some emails from the President and Vice President's offices have been deleted, though he cautions that "no pertinent evidence has been destroyed."

"In an abundance of caution," he writes, "we advise you that we have learned that not all email of the Office of the Vice President and the Executive Office of the President for certain time periods in 2003 was preserved through the normal achiving process on the White House computer system."
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The New York Daily News' James Meek reported this morning that "CIA leak prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald collected 10,000 pages of documents - including the most sensitive terrorism memos in the U.S. government - from Vice President Cheney's office, he said in court papers released yesterday."

Read Fitz' letter at link: http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Fitzgerald_admits_White_House_may_have_0201.html

[patrioticliberal]

1. OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE!

[laylah]

26. As IF that makes a difference! n/t

[mom cat]

29. Its always the coverup! WOOT!

[tabasco]

38. Slam dunk ---> destruction of evidence during an investigation.

We better start building a really big federal penitentiary.

When The People regain control of this country, there will be a lot of explaining to do.

[stop the bleeding]

2. "no pertinent evidence has been destroyed." - WTF how does he know

if they were destroyed?

[LSparkle]

4. Exactly ... if he never saw it, he can't know if it's relevant or not

Ever heard of the term "smoking gun"?

[JJG Miami Shores]

23. And don't forget . . .

Fitzgerald is precise with his use of words. He said that "We are aware of no evidence pertinent to the charges against defendant Libby which has been destroyed." Libby has been charged with obstruction of justice and other similar crimes, but he "is not charged with a violation of statutes prohibiting the disclosure of classified information." Not yet. Fitzgerald may or may not know about the destruction of emails pertinent to other crimes by Libby but not destroyed by Libby, or to crimes committed by people other than Libby.

[hang a left]

28. Welcome to DU

Good first post!

[stop the bleeding]

43. Welcome to DU JJG Miami Shores - well said and have fun

:toast:

[newyawker99]

56. Hi JJG Miami Shores!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[FSogol]

7. Because when an email is sent there are 2 copies.

One for the sender and one for the recipient.

[lovuian]

9. BINGO and its in your Harddrive!!!

If you don't want anything secret don't put on a computer...

Send it by carrier pidgeon!!!

[buzzard]

51. Not all preserved thorough normal archiving methods seems to me it

must then have been preserved in some other way.

[babylonsister]

DESTROYING EVIDENCE! nt

[CottonBear]

3. The headline is misleading. Fitz didn't delete e-mails, Bu$hco* did

according to the article.

[shraby]

5. Maybe he has copies from the sender

to compare with what was NOT on Cheney's pewter.

[The Backlash Cometh]

6. When did they go into Cheney's office and remove the computers

over that Phillipinno spy issue?

[lovuian]

10. Aragoncillo when he was arrested...

Maybe there is a double agent here!!!

[lovuian]

8. Destroying of Evidence & Obstruction of Justice

and I see a conspiracy this is why Gonzales gave them time to purge the emails but it didn't work!!!

[myrna minx]

11. Ahhh...obstruction of justice.

Go get 'em Fitz.

[sundancekid]

12. Fitz letter to Libby attorneys offers a whole lot of insight into case &

the serious command and presence of Fitz's legal advocacy as federal prosecutor on behalf of the United States ( you remember --"we the people")-- Libby & Co are no doubt paying out heavy $$$ for his high priced defense, but WE have Fitz ... 'nuff said

link to letter itself at rawstory

http://rawstory.com/other/pdfs/RawStoryFitzLetter.pdf

[BR_Parkway]

13. Abundance of caution - is he laying groundwork for chain of custody

disputes? Has he gotten hold of something that should have been archived but wasn't? And why wasn't it? Left out deliberately or was it erased?

If nothing else, we do know that Fitz will cover his bases before taking a swing

[democrank]

14. No surprise here.

Cheney and Bush have their own set of rules.

[Tight_rope]

15. OWHOOOOOOOOOO! They in Big trouble now!

:wow: Go get them Fitz. :bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce:

[Double T]

16. How many counts will it take before a prosecutor indicts these......

criminals in the WH?? Can you just imagine if Clinton had done ANY of this? The NEOCONS would have already had him in an orange jumpsuit punching out license plates. This reality is getting to be like a 'scary' movie.

[TrogL]

17. This has to be flagrantly illegal

If for nothing else, for audit purposes.

If budget was discussed, there must be an email kept in the archives for 7 years.

(edited for clarity)

[klook]

18. Don't NSA or FBI have them?

They have all mine.

[skids]

19. Hah. The missing 18 1/2 inodes.

Oh wait, you can't have 1/2 of a inode!

Oh wait, this ain't slashdot. Noone will understand the joke!

Oh wait, if it were slashdot they'd get the inode part but not the 18 1/2

:evilgrin:

[Straight Shooter]

22. LOL.

Well, you're on slashdot and you get it. :7

*cough* WTF is an inode? :silly:

[WhiteTara]

35. minutes of analog tape

:evilgrin:

[fooj]

20. How many more laws will these rat bastards be allowed to break?

How many?

Peace.

[OKNancy]

21. Here is the original story by James Meek

who did the actual reporting

http://www.nydailynews.com/02-01-2006/news/story/387396p-328749c.html

Leak prober got supersecret files



BY JAMES GORDON MEEK
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON - CIA leak prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald collected 10,000 pages of documents - including the most sensitive terrorism memos in the U.S. government - from Vice President Cheney's office, he said in court papers released yesterday.
Without serving any warrants in his probe of who outed CIA officer Valerie Plame, Fitzgerald even obtained censored copies of the President's Daily Brief, the supersecret CIA threat memo for President Bush.

Now Lewis (Scooter) Libby, Cheney's disgraced former chief aide, is asking a court to force Fitzgerald to fork over all the documents to fight charges of perjury and lying to the FBI.

-----

Edit: from LBN rules
Please make an effort to link directly to the original source of an article, instead of linking to sites that have re-published someone else's content, or re-packaged someone else's content as their own. The moderators have the authority to decide which websites are appropriate for posting in the Latest Breaking News forum and which are not.

[starroute]

46. It's not the "original" story -- the one at Raw is different

Sometimes Raw does paraphrase stories -- generally because they're at registration-restricted sites -- but this isn't one of those cases.

The Daily News story has only one sentence on the deleted emails. The Raw Story story is entirely about the emails -- and includes a link to the Fitzgerald letter, besides.

There is no "actual reporting" here -- just different reporters looking at the same government documents and emphasizing what they think is most important.

[PhilipShore]

24. If I was Fitz, I would drop the Libby charges...

because -- it really is not fair to Libby. I am no lawyer, but I think Libby’s due process rights would be violated, because Bush and Co. destroyed evidence, sort of similar to how the -- Nixon administration --destroyed 20 minutes of the Nixon Watergate tapes, which my guess is concerned the military industrial complex -- now the PNAC -- which became legal, and a major part of the lobby industry, via Abramoff etc.

My personal opinion is that, it will never go to trial; either Fitz or the judge will throw it out. It also is way too political, and concerns the CIA. It is just about impossible, to bring CIA issues into court, because they are immune from prosecution.

[FreedomAngel82]

36. It's just served

He lied and twisted things and made Fitzgerald take longer time on his case. Read why Libby was indicited and it is just.

[wordpix2]

25. Watergate history repeats: blank minutes on Nixon's tapes= deleted emails

[wishlist]

27. I don't see how this changes Libby's charges of lying to grand jury

Libby et al hope to delay or prevent the trial on technicalities that have no bearing on the way he lied and obstructed justice during the investigation.

[OhioChick]

30. Hmmmm........

Whitehouse.gov doesn't back up their email server on a nightly basis??
This coming from the same group that instituted Sarbanes-Oxley compliance!

[IowaGuy]

31. Perhaps the NSA could supply him w/ copies :)

[dchill]

32. They can destroy anything they want!

"We're at war!" (- with our criminal administration, that is.)

[Nordmadr]

33. Read the whole letter. It is great! Every damn line is

...nope, were sorry bad guys, we think you've got that wrong according to statute 1234 etc. It shows me how on top of this he is. This is just he beginning here. Let's hope it doesn't get shuttered somehow.

Olafr

[malaise]

34. Wolfie is discussing this

Fitz is back. :popcorn: :popcorn: :popcorn:

[FreedomAngel82]

37. Are you serious?!

Oh yes!

[Disturbed]

40. Obstruction of Justice charges forthcoming to ...

someone in Cheney's office. I suspect that Fitz is going after Cheney.

[wordpix2]

54. Fitz going after "Katrina-was-a-Distraction" Dickhead: please, please

[stop the bleeding]

44. I was away could someone please elaborate what "Leslie" Blitzer

said?

[BuyingThyme]

57. CNN Headline News has added this story to the loop also.

[leftofthedial]

39. didn't the bushturd call for a complete investigation within the gang

(obviously he did no such thing, but he claimed he did) right after.

destroyed documents means his gangmembers were insubordinate

[malaise]

41. Was that before or after

he said not one of his men was involved in any leak??

Edit Gr.

[leftofthedial]

42. at the same time

I remember those of us with brains wondering how he could both call for an investigation and declare his entire staff innocent at the same time

[Just Me]

45. Evidence destroyed,...but not that pertinent to Libby's prosecution?

Interesting. I wonder if the evidence destroyed had to do with covering up Bush and Cheney's involvement in criminal activities. }( NAWWWWW! :rofl:

[Swamp Rat]

47. kick and recommended!!!!!!!!!!!!

:bounce:

[upi402]

49. Good fish

k/r

[Swamp Rat]

52. LOL!

:D

[Little Star]

48. This thread made my day!!!! Thanks 4 posting. n/t

[AndyA]

50. Shades of Watergate

Can you say cover up?

Can you say guilty as sin?

Can you say impeach and go to jail?

[xiamiam]

53. i was hoping for this yesterday before the sotu...but today is good enough

as a matter of fact, after the past three days....this is really good news..

[MIMIC]

55. Didn't see this thread...here's the AP/Forbes link

http://www.forbes.com/business/services/feeds/ap/2006/02/01/ap2493632.html

[ClayZ]

58. K & R

:kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: