Let’s hope Fitzgerald’s track record is a sign of things to come

August 22, 2005

Patrick Fitzgerald’s role as the special prosecutor in the Plame scandal has been considered from a variety of angles, but Toronto’s Globe and Mail had a good piece over the weekend noting a certain pattern to Fitzgerald’s work — he almost always goes after the guy at the top, and more often than not, he gets him.

U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald has prosecuted mobsters, terrorists and even journalists. He has investigated and charged state and city officials in this notoriously crooked state with pit bull tenacity.

And always, he has methodically, inexorably pursued his investigations to target the man at the top of the organizational pyramid. […]

People who have watched Mr. Fitzgerald operate in Chicago, and before that as assistant U.S. Attorney in New York City, are not surprised by his zeal in pursuing the journalists. But don’t expect him to stop there.

That’s how he operates: Apply maximum pressure to reluctant witnesses in order to build an air-tight case against the most senior member of a criminal conspiracy.

There are a surprising number of examples. When he investigated Chicago businessman David Radler, Fitzgerald quickly focused attention on a bigger fish, Conrad Black. When going after some organized crime figures, Fitzgerald flipped them to put Mafia boss John Gambino behind bars. When problems emerged in Chicago’s mayor’s office, Fitzgerald brought charges against John Richard Daley’s top advisers and departmental commissioners.

If I’m in the Bush White House right now, this has to make me nervous.

“You get the sense that there are absolutely no sacred cows with him,” Cindy Canary, executive director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, said. “He aims straight for the top.”

Stay tuned.

I am definitely “tuned in” and waiting for LOTS of shoes to fall on the Bush Administration’s collective head, and maybe a few heads in the CCCP (Compliant Complicit Corporate Press) to boot, too!!

  • It’s hardly unusual for a prosecutor on special grand juries to go after the big fish. That’s what special grand juries are for.

    What is unusual is just how often Fitzgerald has been successful.

  • Can you say RICO statutes?

    They even have cute nicknames; Sammy “the Bull”. Karl “the Architect”.
    Don Corleone, “the Godfather”. Dick Halliburton, “the Godfather”.

  • Here’s a tie-in–Richard Perle was on the board of Black’s company, Hollinger International, and supposedly looked the other way when some VERY questionable payments were made on his watch.

    And since Rader’s cooperating, Perle could be next on the block.

    Also, Fitzgerald repeatedly mentioned “the chairman” at the press conference for Rader’s indictment. Tick, tick, tick …

  • Does anybody have any idea of when Fitzgerald will be done, though? I mean…not to be a party pooper…but it strikes me that this is moving VERY slowly. Could it be that he’s purposely stringing this along?

  • “Plame and her CIA pals are going to jail.”

    Why is it that all the trolls don’t even have enough courage to post their names or handles, let alone the intellectual horsepower to actually debate the issues on the merits? Must be that there is so much Freeper apoplexy going on at Free Republic or LGF or The Corner regarding Bush’s creation of an Islamic state that this troll didn’t recognize his mistake when he wandered into TCR.

    Well stick around and try to use some reason and forensics while here at this great site, Mr./Ms. “Anonymous” — you just might learn a thing or ten!

  • AL – Just when I’m thinking about how lucky the CB community is because we have stayed pretty troll free one of them crawls out from under the bridge. Ah well, here’s my little troll blaster.

    Trolls are large, ugly humanoids, armed with an oversized, wooden hammer. Unfortunately most of them have really bad aim and continually hit themselves in the head with the aforementioned hammer.

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