Fitzgerald’s office speaks

October 18, 2005

Everyone is desperate to know what’s on Patrick Fitzgerald’s mind. Time quoted a lawyer with ties to the White House saying, “If he played his cards any closer to the vest, they’d be in his underwear.” Sounds about right.

With this in mind, we’re left interpreting (over-analyzing?) every little announcement as a key clue as to what’s coming next. For example, this seemed significant.

The prosecutor investigating the outing of a covert CIA operative has yet to say whether he will bring charges, but he has decided to announce decisions in the case in Washington rather than Chicago, where he is based, his spokesman said on Monday. […]

“If and when there would be any announcement, it would be made in Washington,” said Randall Samborn, Fitzgerald’s spokesman.

(The fact that no one recognizes Randall Samborn’s name is indicative of how little Fitzgerald used his spokesman. The poor guy has probably been terribly bored every day for nearly two years.)

So, what does this little tidbit mean? It might mean Fitzgerald will make indictment announcements in DC since that’s where the cases would be tried. It might also mean Fitzgerald will not bring charges and wants to make it easier for reporters before he leaves town. Your unsubstantiated conjecture is as good as mine.

One thing seems certain, however. Fitzgerald’s office probably wouldn’t have made this statement at all unless the investigation was nearly complete. In fact, the Washington Post noted that “some lawyers close to the case cited courthouse talk” that Fitzgerald might announce his findings as early as today.

Stay tuned.

I’m pretty sure that the article suggests that tomorrow will be the day we might hear something.

  • I’m pretty sure that the article suggests that tomorrow will be the day we might hear something.

    You know, the WaPo story was a little unclear. The exact sentence read, “Some lawyers close to the case cited courthouse talk that Fitzgerald might announce his findings as early as tomorrow, though hard evidence about his intentions and timing remained elusive.”

    Now, I think the story was written yesterday and published to the web last night. With that, I took “tomorrow” to mean “today,” but Barkeep49 might be right.

  • I do think there is a significance as to where the announcement was made beyond convenience. Maybe purely symbolic, may be strategic – I just don’t know.

  • Wouldn’t you just love to call Ken Starr and get his opinion about Special Prosecutors running airtight, leakfree, waterproof investigations. And the significance of the blue dress in light of possible indictments under the Espionage Act.

    And Congress too, after 2 years of Whitewater, how many committe hearings into “wrongdoing” had we already been witness to?

    I don’t know about you, but the needle broke in my hypocracy meter a long, long time ago.

    Just trying not to get my hopes up too high. These guys are sooooo good at shifting blame and not suffering the consequences.

  • The flurry of activity in the last couple of
    weeks, coupled with the speculation that
    he’s virtually wrapped up the case can
    only indicate he hasn’t got much. Otherwise,
    he’d have to extend the investigation.

    So I’m expecting a big disappointment.
    And if Fitzgerald fails to nail any big
    fish here, the Bushies run the clock
    out until 2008. It’s all over.

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