Ye Plot Thickeneth!

Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has called another federal grand jury in the Ongoing Criminal Investigation Administration's leak case. Best news I've had all day.

Another Grand Jury for Leak Case.

The prosecutor in the CIA leak case said yesterday that he plans to present evidence to another federal grand jury, signaling a new and potentially significant turn in the investigation into the unmasking of CIA operative Valerie Plame.

Three weeks after indicting I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby and declaring the investigation nearly complete, Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald announced a new phase in the investigation after the disclosure this week that a senior administration official revealed Plame's CIA connection to Washington Post Assistant Managing Editor Bob Woodward in mid-June 2003.

Legal experts said Fitzgerald's decision to call upon a new grand jury is all but certainly because he is considering additional criminal charges in the case.

Two sources close to Karl Rove, the top Bush aide still under investigation in the case, said they have reason to believe Fitzgerald does not anticipate presenting additional evidence against the White House deputy chief of staff. Instead, lawyers involved in the case expect the prosecutor to focus on Woodward's admission that an official other than Libby told him about Plame one month before her identity was publicly disclosed in a July 14, 2003, column by Robert D. Novak.

Woodward, who was questioned by Fitzgerald on Monday, has refused to reveal the source's name publicly, but a person familiar with the investigation said the source had testified earlier in the case. The source came forward to the prosecutor again after Woodward started asking questions for an article on the CIA leak late last month and reminded the person of their 2003 conversation, Woodward said yesterday. That raises the possibility that the source faces legal problems if he or she provided false or incomplete information during previous testimony, according to legal experts.

I'm telling you, I simply cannot believe that Patrick Fitzgerald was hired for this job. Think of it! First, he's actually doing his job. He's not a sycophantic, toadying, suck up. He's not in the pocket of an oil services company. He's not a paid shill of the Heritage Foundation/Progress for America/American Enterprise Institute/&c, &c. He's not related to anyone that I am aware, and he seems to exhibit this near-extinct trait of -- gasp! -- integrity. I simply don't understand it.

Comments

[Josef K]

Merry Fitzmas!

[ae]

It's the most wonderful time of the year! ;-) Merry Fitzmans to you, too, Josef K! A little present for all of us.