The biggest congressional scandal that reporters are intent on ignoring took a turn yesterday, as Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), under investigation for leaking classified information to the press, hired outside counsel yesterday. (Believe it or not, Shelby’s lawyer is — eek! — a Democrat.)
Gregory Craig, a partner at Williams & Connolly, will represent Shelby in an expected investigation by the Senate Select Committee on Ethics, Craig’s office confirmed Wednesday. Craig and Shelby’s spokeswoman, Virginia Davis, both declined to comment on the case.
Craig has his work cut out for him. There isn’t much doubt about whether Shelby leaked the information.
A two-year investigation into how the news media obtained classified intercepted messages has found that Senator Richard C. Shelby, the Alabama Republican and former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, was almost certainly a source, a government official familiar with the inquiry said Thursday.
In fact, Shelby will likely be the subject of two concurrent investigations, one from the Senate Ethics Committee and the other from the Justice Department.
While some press reports indicated that Justice’s criminal investigation was considered over, the law enforcement official stressed that the department still considers the case open. This sets up the possibility of concurrent criminal and ethics investigations by Justice and the Senate.
“It’s not closed — it remains open. The referral was made, but the case remains open,” the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
In the meantime, the media remains completely disinterested in the controversy. CNN mentioned it for less than 30 seconds on a Saturday moring a couple of weeks ago and hasn’t reported on it since. Fox News (surprise, surprise) hasn’t mentioned it once since the story began to unfold last month. NBC did an item on it two weeks ago, but ABC and CBS haven’t said a word.
It’s a good thing he didn’t accidentally take a few photo copies from the National Archives. That’s the kind of story that gets wall-to-wall coverage.