The Political Chase

A Scathing Letter to Patrick Fitzgerald

First, let me say I think Fitzgerald has done an outstanding job. That said, I have to agree with John Dean (former Special Counsel to Richard Nixon). On Friday, Dean wrote a scathing letter to Fitzgerald admonishing him for not employing his plenary powers. Dean questions why Fitzgerald has not cast a broader net in his investigation and cites sufficient precedent for Fitzgerald to do so.

On October 28 of this year, your office released a press statement in which you stated that “A major focus of the grand jury investigation was to determine which government officials had disclosed to the media prior to July 14, 2003, information concerning Valerie Wilson’s CIA affiliation, and the nature, timing, extent, and purpose of such disclosures, as well as whether any official made such a disclosure knowing that Valerie Wilson’s employment by the CIA was classified information.”

If, indeed, that is the major focus of your investigation, then your investigation is strikingly limited, given your plenary powers. To be a bit more blunt, in historical context, it is certainly less vigorous an investigation than those of your predecessors who have served as special counsel — men appointed to undertake sensitive high-level investigations when the Attorney General of the United States had a conflict of interest. (Here, it was, of course, the conflict of Attorney General John Ashcroft that led to the chain of events that resulted in your appointment.)

Dean takes issue with a question I have had since this investigation started. Why has Fitzgerald not taken action against the many individuals that broke the law or at minimum breached their contract allowing them to hold a classified status - specifically, form SF-312 and Title 18 Section 793 of the United States Criminal Code? Previously, I wrote about the provisions of these statutes and their applicability, but Dean places considerable emphasis on them.

To summarize, in order to receive a security clearance each person is required to sign SF-312, which states that the signer agrees not to violate Title 18 (and other laws). Title 18 specifies that an individual cannot provide classified information to anyone that does not have clearance, and even if they do, information can be conveyed on a need-to-know basis only. Therefore, just because someone has a security clearance, it does not mean they have carte blanche to classified information (at their defined level). Furthermore, it is incumbent upon anyone that signs SF-312 to insure any information they pass to another is not classified, or if classified, is the recipient eligible to receive it. In other words, ignorance does not apply — no cop outs with, “I didn’t know…” There has been an abundance of “I did not know…” stated over the past few months.

Your investigation also relates to the dissipation — if not the irreparable destruction — of a government asset: Valerie Plame Wilson. As you no doubt know, the U.S. Government invested a great deal of money in her special education and training, as well as other aspects of her covert status. Then, either intentionally, or with gross negligence, senior Bush administration officials blew Valerie Wilson’s cover. (Prior to the disclosure, her status was not, as some have claimed, an “open secret”: Rather, as you yourself have said, the fact that she was a CIA asset was not previously well-known outside the intelligence community.)

Yet there is no evidence that you have made any effort whatsoever to undertake any civil remedies dealing with this either intentional or grossly careless destruction of a government asset. As acting Attorney General for this matter, you have even more authority than did Special Counsels Roberts and Pomerene.

Those who leaked the information about Valerie Wilson breached signed contracts they had made with the government. These contracts, moreover, were not to be taken lightly: They enforced profoundly important obligations to national security, on the part of the very people who were supposed to be serving that end.

Dean refers to Watergate and how the Nixon administration knowingly and purposefully tried to limit the scope of those investigating them, which is exactly what the Bush administration is doing today.

Even more troubling, from an historical point of view, is the fact that the narrowness of your investigation, which apparently is focusing on the Intelligence Identities Protection Act (making it a crime to uncover the covert status of a CIA agent), plays right into the hands of perpetrators in the Administration.

Indeed, this is exactly the plan that was employed during Watergate by those who sought to conceal the Nixon Administration’s crimes, and keep criminals in office.

The plan was to keep the investigation focused on the break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters — and away from the atmosphere in which such an action was undertaken. Toward this end, I was directed by superiors to get the Department of Justice to keep its focus on the break-in, and nothing else.

That was done. And had Congress not undertaken its own investigation (since it was a Democratically-controlled Congress with a Republican President) it is very likely that Watergate would have ended with the conviction of those caught in the bungled burglary and wiretapping attempt at the Democratic headquarters.

Now, with a Republican-controlled Congress and a Republican President, you (a Republican appointee) are the last bulwark of protection for the American people.

After pleading his legal position, Dean fires Fitzgerald up. Dean knows enough about Fitzgerald, that if he asserts Ftizgerald has fallen short of perfection, Fitzgerald will come out swinging.

While I have no reason to believe you are easily intimidated, all I can say is that your investigation, thus far, is falling precisely within the narrow confines — the formula procedure — that was relied upon in the first phase of the Watergate cover-up by the Nixon administration.

So narrow was your investigation that it appears that you failed to learn that Bob Woodward had been told of Valerie Wilson’s CIA post until after you had indicted Scooter Libby. While I have no doubt you know your way around the Southern District of New York, and the Northern District of Illinois, Washington DC is a very different place.

With all due respect, Mr. Fitzgerald, I believe you are being had. I believe that you were selected with the expectation that you would conduct the narrowest of investigations, and it seems you have done just that.

In closing, Dean goes for the jugular vein, but does so with all the charm one can muster — he waves the American flag, which he knows will settle at the core of Fitzgerald’s personal beliefs and convictions.

To right-minded Americans, the idea that Administration officials have betrayed their national security obligations, yet remain in their jobs, is nothing short of appalling. Beyond politics is patriotism: Patriotic Americans want to see you not only prosecute those who compromised and endangered Valerie Plame Wilson, but also force the Administration to clean house with respect to those who did this, which you can accomplish through appropriate civil action.

Read the entire letter.