The AP is reporting that Attorney General John Ashcroft will recuse himself from the ongoing investigation into White House officials illegally leaking the name of a CIA operative (thanks for the tip, Chuck). Responsibility for the investigation will now shift to Chicago U.S. attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, who the AP explains will report to Ashcroft’s new deputy, James Comey.
OK, there’s a handful of interesting angles to this. First is understanding why Ashcroft recused himself.
This is no trivial matter. When the Justice Department investigation began, and Democrats called for an independent counsel, Ashcroft insisted that he could handle this, even though the investigation involved Bush’s White House. Indeed, all indications are that he stayed a little too interested in the matter, requiring investigators to keep him personally appraised on the inquiry’s progress.
Now, however, after months of research and interviews, Ashcroft is divesting himself on the investigation. Ashcroft has not yet given an explanation for the move, but his deputy, Comey, told reporters, “The attorney general, in an abundance of caution, believed that his recusal was appropriate based on the totality of the circumstances and the facts and evidence developed at this stage of the investigation.”
Hmm. What “evidence” might he be referring to?
One possibility that occurred to me involves Karl Rove. Many of you may remember that Rove and Ashcroft have a long professional history, including Rove having served as a top campaign consultant to Ashcroft during his Senate campaigns in Missouri. If the investigation were beginning to focus on Rove’s involvement in the leaks — if Rove was involved — it could have prompted Ashcroft to get nervous enough to step aside.
That, just to be clear, is a guess. Pure speculation. It may actually be far less complicated, such as Ashcroft’s desire to cover his own butt in case this scandal started getting much worse. But there’s obviously a pretty good reason for this move. The attorney general wouldn’t step aside from an important White House criminal investigation like this one unless the inquiry had turned up something pretty big.
Also interesting from the AP report was word that the focus of investigation “remains on the White House,” as opposed to administration officials in other agencies.
And what about Fitzgerald? Should we consider him an objective U.S. attorney committed to an above-board investigation? From the looks of his background, it appears that the answer is an emphatic “yes.”
Fitzgerald, described by colleagues as “Elliot Ness with a Harvard law degree and a sense of humor,” has a tremendous record. Before becoming a U.S. attorney, Fitzgerald was a Manhattan prosecutor working on high-profile terrorist cases, including the original World Trade Center bombings.
More recently, Fitzgerald oversaw the investigation of former Illinois Gov. George Ryan (R), who was indicted this month on 22 counts of corruption, including taking free vacations, tax fraud, lying to federal agents and skimming cash out of his own campaign fund.
Asked by reporters in 2001 if he was a Republican or a Democrat, Fitzgerald said, “Neither, I’m independent.”
One last thought: I can’t help but notice that today’s announcement comes just four days after the Washington Post ran a front-page article explaining that the Plame Game investigation is “gathering momentum” and that “a fourth prosecutor to the team investigating the leak of an undercover CIA officer’s identity, while the FBI has said a grand jury may be called to take testimony from administration officials.”
If I’m not mistaken, it sounds as if this scandal is just starting to pick up momentum again. Just in time for the election year…
Next step: grand jury subpoenas!