WaPo notes the following in its perusal of the e-mails released last night: Fitzgerald Ranked During Leak Case
U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald was ranked among prosecutors who had “not distinguished themselves” on a Justice Department chart sent to the White House in March 2005, when he was in the midst of leading the CIA leak investigation that resulted in the perjury conviction of a vice presidential aide, administration officials said yesterday.The ranking placed Fitzgerald below “strong U.S. Attorneys . . . who exhibited loyalty” to the administration but above “weak U.S. Attorneys who . . . chafed against Administration initiatives, etc.,” according to Justice documents.
The chart was the first step in an effort to identify U.S. attorneys who should be removed. Two prosecutors who received the same ranking as Fitzgerald were later fired, documents show.
Now, setting aside whatever one may think of the recent Scooter Libby prosecution (although, in terms of job performance, Fitzgerald did get a conviction), let’s consider the following:
Fitzgerald, the U.S. attorney in Chicago, had also recently brought a corruption indictment in Illinois against former Republican governor George H. Ryan.[...]
Fitzgerald has been widely recognized for his pursuit of criminal cases against al-Qaeda’s terrorist network before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and he drew up the official U.S. indictment against Osama bin Laden.
[...]
Fitzgerald also won the Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service in 2002 under Ashcroft.
And, via the San Francisco Chronicle (The man behind CIA leak inquiry / Special prosecutor said to be immune to political pressure) we can delve back into earlier portions of his career:
As head of the New York U.S. attorney office’s task force on organized crime and terrorism in the 1990s, Fitzgerald prosecuted and won convictions against those responsible for the 1993 World Trade Center truck bombings, the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, and of John Gambino, a leader of the Gambino crime family, on a host of charges.
Does any of this sound like a mediocre prosecutor? Granted, this is an incomplete picture based on a number of high profile cases. However, it is odd to think that this represents a mid-to-poor level performer who should be consider close to the edge of dismissal.
And not to be conspiratorial, but it does seem that one of the things folks on “the list” seem to have in common is the investigation and prosecution of Republicans or the perceived lack of such regarding Democrats. The coincidences are great, shall we say.
At a minimum all of this does is reinforce the notion that there was something odd about the rankings.
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March 20th, 2007 at 10:31 am
And not to be conspiratorial, but it does seem that one of the things folks on “the list” seem to have in common is the investigation and prosecution of Republicans or the perceived lack of such regarding Democrats.
Fitzgerald does have an investigation going on involving malfeasence in Chicago Democrat Mayor Daley’s City Hall.
And right now his office is in the midst of trying to convict conservative media tycoon Conrad Black.
His main problem–from the point of view of the White House–is that he actually does his job.
Of course, there is no way that they could have fired Fitz given their timeline to have everyone out in December. With the impending Libby trial, it would have been too much.
March 20th, 2007 at 11:58 am
See a tongue-in-cheek visual of Alberto & Karl starring in the new White House presentation of “Justice Is Served”…here:
http://www.thoughttheater.com