Fitzgerald’s Memo Puts Libby Crimes in Cheney ContextThe Washington Post’s Dan Froomkin spells out how a memo Patrick Fitzgerald sent to the judge preparing to sentence Scooter Libby connects Libby’s obstruction crimes to Dick Cheney.
In the sentencing memo, Fitzgerald urges U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton to send Libby to prison for 2 and a half to 3 years. You can read the memo here.
In Friday’s eminently readable court filing, Fitzgerald quotes the Libby defense calling his prosecution “unwarranted, unjust, and motivated by politics.” In responding to that charge, the special counsel evidently felt obliged to put Libby’s crime in context. And that context is Dick Cheney.
At trial, it became clear that Libby learned about former CIA agent Valerie Plame from Cheney. But the details that would clarify who orchestrated the press leak were covered up, Fitzgerald says, by Libby’s acts of obstruction.
Froomkin grabs key points from Fitzgerald’s memo saying:
The investigation, Fitzgerald writes, “was necessary to determine whether there was concerted action by any combination of the officials known to have disclosed the information about Ms. Plame to the media as anonymous sources, and also whether any of those who were involved acted at the direction of others. This was particularly important in light of Mr. Libby’s statement to the FBI that he may have discussed Ms. Wilson’s employment with reporters at the specific direction of the Vice President.” (My italics.)
We’ll find out Libby’s fate next week, when he is expected to be sentenced.