Plame case documents: The prosecutor's Web site

Doing research for a post on the Plame case at Old Hickory's Weblog, I realized that once the indictments start hitting the fan in the Plame outing case, sorting through the coverage will be difficult at times, given the incredible fog of disinformation the Republican noise machine is already emitting.

And, as Tank Woman just pointed out here at The Blue Voice, if and when indictments of senior officials come down, lots and lots of people who are not political junkies will be trying to figure out what's going on.

So I thought it might be helpful to post links for some of the relevant documentary material and stories on the case. And what better place to start than this? Posting of CIA Leak Probe Documents May Signal Indictments Ahead by Tom Hamburger and Richard Schmitt Los Angeles Times 10/21/05.

Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the special prosecutor rumored to be wrapping up the long-running investigation of the leak of a CIA agent's identity, set up a website this week posting previously filed documents in the case. ...

Fitzgerald's site, which appeared Wednesday, has an American flag with the words "Department of Justice" emblazoned over it. Underneath is the prosecutor's name in large type. Beneath that are five documents, including the Dec. 30, 2003 letter from acting Atty. Gen. James Comey appointing Fitzgerald to investigate the leak. Another entry includes a letter from Comey permitting Fitzgerald to expand his investigation to look into other possible federal crimes, among them perjury, destruction of evidence, intimidation of witnesses or obstruction of justice.

The Patrick J. Fitzgerald Web site now has well more than five documents as of this writing, all of them so far *.pdf files, though the front page shows only six links. So, if you read something about the definition of Fitzgerald's authority as special counsel in this case, you can look at some of the relevant documents, such as the 12/30/03 letter from Acting Attorney General James Comey to Fitzgerald, saying:

... I hereby delegate to you all the authority of the Attorney General with respect to the Department's investigation into the alleged unauthorized disclosure of a CIA employee's identity, and I direct you to exercise that authority as Special Counsel independent of the supervision or control of any officer of the Department.

I wonder if the defendants will set up their own Web sites. I hope so. Although something tells me that might be the kind of thing that would give their attorneys the heebie-jeebies.

Stay tuned.

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