Reply #130: "Urgency of leak investigation debatable"

[Me.]

This is a “come on already” piece.

<<<snip>>>
“No one has suggested publicly that Fitzgerald, a career Justice Department lawyer whom Comey has likened to "Elliot Ness with a Harvard law degree," is delaying any indictments until after Nov. 2 to avoid hurting President Bush's re-election prospects.

Still, the prosecutor's investigation into how the name of CIA operative Valerie Plame made its way into a Novak column on July 14, 2003, and whether any laws were broken in the process, illustrates some of the problems facing prosecutors in deciding whether — and when — to bring politically sensitive cases.


Prosecutors are not supposed to let politics, including elections, affect timing or the decision to bring cases. Yet there appears to be an unwritten rule that charges with possible political fallout should not be filed on the eve of an election because the motivation would be suspect.

Fitzgerald still could pull an October surprise. Some former prosecutors, who have conducted similar national-security investigations and who did not want to be identified, think it is likely that Fitzgerald by now knows who leaked the information to Novak, and is mulling whether a crime was committed.” Cont..

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002071314_leak24.html