Because Patrick Fitzgerald is a special counsel that respects confidentiality and disdains leaks, unlike some prosecutors we know (cough, cough, Ken Starr, cough), details about the ongoing White House criminal investigation have been far and few between. Indeed, there’s been far more coverage of the debate about forcing reporters to testify than there’s been about the incident — leaking the name of an undercover CIA agent out of spite — that prompted the investigation in the first place.
The last substantive update came in October, when we learned Karl Rove testified for over two-and-a-half hours as part of the probe. Since then, bupkis.
Until today. Murray Waas, who has done excellent work covering this scandal since the beginning, had an item for The American Prospect indicating that the criminal investigation is not only finished, but has been done for months.
The special prosecutor investigating whether any Bush administration official may have violated federal law by leaking the identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame to columnist Robert Novak recently informed a federal court that his investigation has been “for all practical purposes complete” since October 2004.
The disclosure by special counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald that he completed virtually all aspects of his federal grand jury investigation as long as six months ago was made in court papers the prosecutor filed on March 22. Despite the fact that the filing has been on the public record since then, it has previously been unreported.
This apparently played a large part in Fitzgerald’s drive to get the NYT’s Judith Miller and Time’s Matthew Cooper to testify. Since he was done, Fitzgerald needed the reporters’ testimony to wrap up the probe altogether.
So, what does this mean for those waiting to see who’ll get “frog-marched” out of the White House? It’s hard to say.
Waas seems to acknowledge the inherent difficulty in trying to read the tea leaves here. On the one hand, legal experts agree that the fact that Fitzgerald apparently wrapped things up months ago suggests criminal charges won’t be forthcoming. On the other hand, the fact that he’s fought so diligently for answers from Miller and Cooper suggests Fitzgerald may believe he has evidence that needs corroboration in order to spark an indictment.
The truth is, we don’t know and Waas has equal evidence pointing at opposite conclusions.
The fact that the special prosecutor has completed his investigation, albeit absent the testimony of the two reporters he still wants to call before his grand jury, on its face makes it more likely than not that Fitzgerald will not bring criminal charges in the case. But at least one former federal prosecutor (who worked closely with Fitzgerald in government and is now in private practice) says there should be no rush to judgment.
Referring to the contentious battle to obtain the testimony of the two reporters, this person said: “[Fitzgerald] would not have done this, and put everyone through it, without good reason. And he would have not just done this just to close out to case. He is meticulous and careful to a fault, and wants his work to be complete. But I doubt he would be going through all of this to just wrap up some loose ends.”
Frankly, at this point, I’m just glad to get any kind of update at all on this story. Stay tuned.