Posted on 10/22/2005 11:30:15 AM PDT by wagglebee
John Sarcone investigate a fellow Donk ? Not very likely.
I seriously doubt whether the Bush administration broke the law in regards to the Plame business. It's possible that some of them may have entangled themselves in the course of giving complicated testimony over the course of a couple of years. I doubt if that was deliberate. I'll be very angry if someone is indicted because of some minor verbal slipup in the course of giving hours of testimony.
There's no evidence that the Bush administration initiated these phone calls, or initiated the conversations about Plame, or were the first to raise her name, as far as I am aware.
I sincerely hope that Fitzgerald is neither partisan nor vindictive.
If it turns out that any CIA undercover agent or asset were "eliminated" when Plame's cover of Brewster Jennings was outted as a result of her identity being blown....
well that's a pretty serious offense with a fairly serious penalty, isn't it?
bttt
Y'all need to stop wetting your pants over this Fitzgerald guy. He is playing things close to the vest like a good prosecutor--no leaks, no p.r., just questioning. Odds are good that since he's doing his job quietly, he will indict someone who deserves it. What comes out in the media in the meantime is nothing but MSM crap. And now Newsmax is establishing its bona fides in case Fitzgerald smacks the administration as it hopes. "See, look, we hated Fitz way back!"
Who cares what they have to say when they know nothing about the IP's office doings!?!? Let the prosecutor do his job and until something crops up for REAL, leave the b.s. spinning and prognosticating to the MSM.
Victoria Toensing, who helped write the law protecting the identities of covert intelligence agents, long ago said that no law regarding Plame had been broken. Surely, it can be presumed that Fitzgerald is smart enough to have likewise known from the beginning that Plame was not covered by the act. Yet he has continued to drag this idiotic mess out forever, rather than quickly announce that no laws were broken, and so that's the end of that - - you know, like he did with Harkin.
And so now I am wondering if Fitzgerald is involved in some kind of a too-clever-by-half entrapment scheme, a scheme in which rumors of far-reaching avenues of investigation and indictments are spread by targeted leaking from his office in order to try to draw one or more of the players into getting just paranoid enough to make a mistake or do something stupid so he can finally say, "Ah-haa - - gotcha!" to somebody, anybody.
I have been pretty ambivalent about Fitzgerald up to this point, but he is starting to get an odor.
Hey Fitz - - crap or get off the pot.
"Victoria Toensing, who helped write the law protecting the identities of covert intelligence agents, long ago said that no law regarding Plame had been broken. Surely, it can be presumed that Fitzgerald is smart enough to have likewise known from the beginning that Plame was not covered by the act."
Obviously I don't have those kind of credentials but for what it's worth I also think that legally there was no outing because outing was not the intent..
But my point in that post was that I have seen no indication that Fitzgerald has come to the same conclusion. And without him coming to that conclusion I don't see how he can be criticized for continuing the investigation after coming to that conclusion.
And I am saying that if Fitz didn't come to that conclusion, like everyboidy else who has a passing knowledge of the act and Plame's biography, then he's a friggin' idiot.
Why would Rep. Greg Ganske's "people" in the supposed strategy meeting..not know exactly who was attending said meeting?
I mean...would they not know this Conley character was a former aide to Dungheap Harkin?
Knowing how slimy politician's...especially the DemoSocialistLeftistMarxistLib's are, I would think they would be more careful.
Fitzgerald was brought in because the CIA complained of leaks. His job was to investigate leaks. Most presumed he would try to make case under the weak low about outing CIA agents. But he doesnt have to. He can also go after people who improperly used or released classified material under the espionage statute. Maybe not fair in that the CIA and Wilson seem to be leaking too but they arent the ones with their hands in cookie jar.
Did somebody have their hands in the cookie jar?
Campaign manager resigns over tape
09/28/2002
Sen. Tom Harkin's campaign manager resigned abruptly Friday, becoming the second casualty in an unfolding controversy stemming from a tape-recorded meeting of Republican rival Greg Ganske and his financial supporters.
The departure of Jeff Link from the Democratic senator's campaign came as Harkin acknowledged a junior research staffer asked a former Harkin congressional aide to record the Sept. 3 Ganske meeting at the Hotel Savery in Des Moines. The aide then passed the tape and a transcript to a newspaper reporter.
While apologizing for the incident, Harkin downplayed its significance as "shenanigans" and the product of "youthful exuberance."
"One young staffer got carried away and went over the line of acceptable campaign practices," Harkin told supporters and the news media at the Hotel Fort Des Moines on Friday. "Juvenile antics? Yes. Dennis the Menace capers? Yes. Criminal activity? Hardly."
Republicans, meanwhile, said questions remain as to whether the Harkin staffer was the sole campaign worker involved. They have called for a criminal probe.
While Harkin hopes Friday's campaign changes will put the controversy behind his re-election bid, major discrepancies exist between versions of what happened according to his campaign and according to the man believed to have recorded the meeting. Those differences could have a bearing on whether a crime was committed.
Harkin said Friday that a 21-year-old campaign researcher asked a Des Moines businessman who had worked for Harkin in the 1970s to tape the meeting. But the businessman, Brian Conley, 53, of Des Moines, claims to have taped the meeting on his own and turned the tape over to the Harkin campaign in disgust over remarks Ganske made during the meeting.
The Republican Party of Iowa and Ganske's campaign say Conley's recording of the meeting was illegal because he intended to use it to damage Ganske, a four-term congressman challenging Harkin's bid for a fourth term. Lawyers for Harkin and Conley say no laws were broken because the tape was made by an invited participant, which they say is legal.
Iowa criminal-law experts have said that if someone has permission to be at a meeting, they can tape it and use it for any purpose as long as it is not to bring harm to anyone.
Harkin said Rafael Ruthchild, whose responsibilities for the Harkin campaign included videotaping Ganske during public appearances, asked Brian Conley to record the meeting.
Ruthchild resigned from the campaign Thursday, according to his lawyer, Steve Wandro of Des Moines. Ruthchild could not be reached for comment Friday.
"These young people need careful management and supervision. My campaign manager (Jeff Link) has taken responsibility for this lack of management and supervision, and he has suggested that he step aside and a new management team be brought in," Harkin said. "I have accepted this suggestion."
Harkin said he did not recall Conley's work for his U.S. House office in the mid-1970s and he hadn't spoken with him in many years.
State Republican Party Chairman Charles Larson Jr. said Friday that Conley, an aide to Harkin's U.S. House staff in 1975 and 1976, was directed to tape the meeting by top members of the Harkin campaign. He cited a source he would not identify.
Larson said Harkin's statement was "clearly an attempt to divert attention from the facts, pawn off responsibility onto a 'young staffer,' and then shrug it all off as a 'Dennis the Menace caper.' "
"Are we supposed to believe this 'young man' acted alone in directing a 53-year-old business executive to change his voting registration, pose as a Ganske supporter, attend and secretly record a private meeting, and then transcribe and distribute it to the press?" Larson said. "Then I guess he would have us believe that Dennis the Menace controlled Mr. Wilson."
John Frew, who ran Harkin's first Senate campaign in 1984, replaces Link with six weeks remaining until the election. Link, who is Harkin's former Senate chief of staff, also ran Harkin's 1996 campaign before managing the 2002 effort until Friday. Link could not be reached for comment.
Friday's announcement came at the end of a week that began with Harkin and Link saying they had no knowledge of the taped meeting.
Conley's name emerged Wednesday as the person believed to have made the tape under a much different scenario than outlined by Harkin. A Des Moines lawyer issued a statement Tuesday in which he said his client, now believed to be Conley, claimed to have attended the meeting by invitation and recorded it in lieu of taking notes.
The lawyer, Brent Rosenberg, said his client did not go to the meeting intending to record it, but decided to hand his tape over to Harkin's campaign out of disgust after hearing comments Ganske made about his willingness to attack Harkin "with a smile on our face."
David Wiggins, a West Des Moines lawyer hired by Harkin to look into the incident, said Conley approached Ruthchild with his invitation, and Ruthchild encouraged him to attend and record the meeting. Ganske and his campaign finance chairman spoke at the meeting, along with the White House's political director, who participated by speaker phone.
Des Moines police began talking to members of the two campaigns Thursday as well as to Kathie Obradovich, the Lee Enterprises political reporter who received the recording and transcript from the Harkin campaign. Lee Enterprises publishes the Quad-City Times and other Iowa newspapers.
In still another strange twist in this saga, Des Moines police Sgt. Bruce Elrod denied Friday published reports that a detective had said Conley had asked for immunity from criminal prosecution in exchange for his cooperation with the investigation.
"The detective did not either confirm or deny that a request for immunity was made," Elrod said.
Detective Bill Boggs was quoted by Obradovich as confirming the request for immunity. Boggs had called Obradovich in connection with the case.
Wiggins, the attorney hired by Harkin, said it is common for a lawyer to immediately ask for immunity from prosecution as an investigation begins.
SAVERYGATE: HOW WELL DID HARKIN KNOW CONLEY?
The Des Moines Register has this new article on the Saverygate Scandal. It appears that Conley has stuck his nose into political meetings before:
Months before he became the key figure in a taping controversy surrounding Iowa's U.S. Senate race, Brian Conley was involved in a skirmish over Republican U.S. Rep. Greg Ganske's invitation to speak to an Iowa trade association's annual meeting.
"He was concerned we were only presenting one side of an issue," said Ross Larson, executive director of Printing Industries of the Midlands, a trade association of more than 200 printing companies in Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota. He said Conley called the group in April to demand the association also invite Ganske's Democratic rival, U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, to its annual summer meeting on July 27 at Okoboji.
Harkin has stated that he barely knew Conley. But the story casts a bit of doubt on that:
Larson said he explained to Conley that Ganske was invited to the summer meeting because Larson and a representative of a national printing group had met with Ganske in Washington to talk about patients-bill-of-rights legislation, which Ganske had sponsored.
Larson said he also told Conley they had been unable to set up a meeting with Harkin when he was in Washington.
"If you need an appointment, I can help you," Larson remembers Conley telling him in April, after word of Ganske's invitation to the conference had reached association members by mail.
Harkin has said he barely knew Conley.
Larson said he was told later by Harkin's staff that Conley had contacted the senator's Washington office about appearing at the association's meeting.
******
First, the Harkin Campaign denied any knowledge of the recording, and campaign manager Jeff Link even suggested that it might be a trick by the Ganske Campaign. The next day Link admitted that the Harkin Campaign was involved. Furthermore, Brian Conley and Rafael Ruthchild are not talking to the media.
******
UPDATE: Here's another article in the Des Moines Register. This one has a bit of new information about Brian Conley; he was not only on Harkin's Congressional staff, he also worked for Harkin's campaign in 1974.
******
MAN NEXT TO CONLEY AT MEETING SAYS HE DIDN’T SEE A TAPE RECORDER
Retired Des Moines physician Ken Schultheis said Brian Conley displayed no tape recorder when he sat beside him at a U.S. Senate campaign meeting for Republican Greg Ganske on Sept. 3….
We sat elbow to elbow and I didn’t see one," said Schultheis.
Schultheis said he introduced himself to Conley, who sat alongside him near the speaker’s table at the Hotel Savery, where Ganske and his finance director sat when they addressed the two dozen financial donors in attendance.
Dr. Schultheis also had something to say about Conley's claim of "outrage" over Ganske’s attitude as the reason for handing over the recording to the Harkin Campaign:
"I certainly didn’t appreciate the claim that he was surprised or angered by the comments," Schultheis said. "He didn’t look angry to me."
Guess that casts further doubt on MWO’s claim that: "Interested especially in hearing Mehlman's remarks, the taper OPENLY recorded the meeting instead of taking notes. Nobody objected."
Brian Conley, 53, was invited after making a $50 contribution to Ganske. The Des Moines businessman, and former Harkin aide in the 1970s, made a digital recording of the meeting at the request of Harkin staff member Rafael Ruthchild, 21. Conley then returned the recorder to Ruthchild, who provided a copy of the recording and a transcript to a reporter.
Sarcone said a crime was not committed because: Conley is not considered to have made the recording for the purpose of committing a criminal or injurious act against the Ganske campaign - it was not used for blackmail or extortion. The recording and transcript provided to a reporter were accurate.
"Reporting the truth of what went on is not an injurious act," said Sarcone, a Democrat. "Generally, when you defame someone, you're reporting something that's not true. There's never been any allegation that the tape was altered."
Investigators interviewed state Republican Party Chairman Charles Larson Jr., Ganske campaign manager Bill Armistead and former Harkin campaign manager Jeff Link, who has since resigned because he said he didn't exercise adequate control over the campaign. They also interviewed people who attended the Ganske meeting.
Conley and Ruthchild, who also has resigned, did not speak to investigators at the advice of their attorneys. They also could not be reached for comment Monday night. A woman at Conley's house asked a reporter to leave her property.
Sarcone said there was no reason to interview Harkin, who has said he had no prior knowledge of the incident. "You're looking at the conduct of the person who actually did the taping," Sarcone said. "If they have violated no law, no one else has, as well."
Steve Colloton, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Iowa, recused himself from the case due to personal relationships with Armistead and Larson. The U.S. attorney for the Northern District is Larson's father.
Republicans said Sarcone should have recused himself because he is a well-connected Democrat whose sister works for Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, a South Dakota Democrat, in Washington, D.C.
"That really shows the mean-spirited nature of that," Sarcone said of Republican accusations. "Where my sister works has no bearing on this at all."
Democrats pointed out that the U.S. attorney in Illinois who concurred with Sarcone is an appointee of President Bush.
I have been reading here about what a straight arrow this guy Fitzgerald is - do you all still believe that? The Demonrats are out to get every Repub they can no matter what it takes or how corrupt the action is. The MSM is in their court 99%.
I think you're 2 out of 3, I don't think Libby broke any laws nor do I think he perjured himself. Joe Wilson outed his wife and this be brought out in court. I think Judy went on a fishing trip and tried to confirm what Joe Wilson told her.
Huh? No leaks - the MSM is so full of "leaks" we can't get the real news!
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