Paul: You are way too dismissive of the possiblity that the letter that Stone's lawyer sent the the FBI WAS the tip the Feds used to work this investigation. The timeline you refer to in your post that you say "makes clear" in fact does nothing of the sort. It is not clear at all based on your own timeline when and how the investigation "started". Even the timeline you use is vague at best in some instances (Fall of 07 for example) and based on the only information available to date (I assume)---the FBI and US Atty's affidavits and leaks to the press. It's their story. TPM did a great job, and a service to the country, by doing the original investigative reporting on the the Bush Administration's destruction of the integrity of the US Justice Dept. by making it their political playground. Thanks to the efforts of TPM that story became common knowledge when the MSM finally caught up with your stories. Now the country knows the US Justice Dept was a very political operation and the facts and research have shown that many decisions were made for political and partisan reasons.

In light of this letter from Stone's lawyer to the FBI (which the Feds NEVER mentioned in any of their leaks or affidavits) it seems that the timelines provided by the Feds appear to be much more manufactured when you read them now.

Regardless of what Spitzer did to himself, this story needs a much closer look by TPM and others in the media. We now KNOW the US Justice Dept was corrupted by politics under this Bush administration so why would we be so dismissive of the possibilty that politics infested the Spitzer case?

Spitzer understandably had many enemies and he incredibly found a way to make it easy for them to take him down. Despite that fact, the motives, behavior, tactics, and yes, politics of this case deserve much more attention and should not be so easily and readily dismissed -- especially by those more responsible than anyone for exposing the political Bush Justice Dept.

Posted at March 24, 2008 9:57 PM in response to Did Spitzer Get Stoned?