Michael Collins

You remember him, the supposedly squeaky clean U.S. Attorney who was going to get the slackers responsible for outing CIA agent Valerie Plame. Yeah, that guy.

He's prosecuting the flamboyant former governor of Illinois right now, the still honorable and innocent Rod Blagojevich. The case is being tried in in the United States District Court in Chicago. You won't believe the charges: 1) devising and participating in a scheme "to defraud the State of Illinois and the people of the State of Illinois of (his) honest services" and 2) offering a contract to the Chicago Tribune to dump some editorial writers critical of his administration.

The second charge is a no-brainer. Corporations buy influence with politicians in a variety of ways. Politicians deliver the goods and ask for favors in return. It's customary practice in the corridors of private and public power. Fitzgerald might as well indict just about everyone in the 111^th Congress if he's actually serious. Forget about it Mr. Prosecutor, that's a non starter.

It's the first charge that is of greater interest, denying the people and the government of a honest services by an elected or appointed official. This is very close to the law used in the Nixon Articles of Impeachment. It means you got paid but didn't do your job because you were too busy breaking the law.

Guess what? Fitzgerald himself, the peerless prosecutor, is guilty of those same charges and I can prove it.

Agent Plame Outed

Valerie Plame was a high level CIA agent who was monitoring and investigating the black market for nuclear weapons. These weren't just any nuclear weapons. They were weapons that could be used against the people of the United States. On July 14, 2003, the late but nonetheless vile Robert Novak revealed Plame's identity as a CIA agent. The deliberate outing compromised Plame's work and contacts. The nation was put at risk to a degree never revealed.

How do you know that you're smarter than Patrick Fitzgerald? You know that the release of Plame's identity was treason. One form of treason is "Aiding and Abetting" the enemies of this country; in this case, by assisting the success of those who wished to nuke citizens.

Fitzgerald was appointed special prosecutor to investigate the Plame leak on December 30, 2003. He was given plenary power defined as "complete power over a particular area with no limitations."

What did he do with that power? Fitzgerald focused on the narrowest of crimes, perjury and obstruction of justice. More importantly, he focused a the lowest thug on the totem pole of likely perpetrators, Lewis "Scooter" Libby. Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, and George W. Bush were left alone.

Defrauding the people of the United States of "honest services"

We didn't get an indictment until October 28, 2005. Libby's trial didn't begin until January 2007. It ended with a conviction in by early March.

What's the big rush? We've got people in the White House leaking names of a critical agent protecting the country against nuclear terrorism. No problem, lets take our time. Let's charge the least important person involved. And by all means, we must never call the crime what it is, treason.

The Boy Scout prosecutor who never rests took almost two years to return an indictment. He failed to charge the biggest crime, treason, even though he'd been granted plenary power, an incredible gift for a federal prosecutor.

Fitzgerald failed to do his job on time, failed to charge the right crime, and let the big boys take a hike. These were the very same people who risked the lives of those they had sworn to protect by not doing their job!

Instead of pointing fingers at others, Fitzgerald ought to turn himself in for the very same offense that forms the basis for his prosecution of Rod Blagojevich. He won't. The charade will continue and the myth making will arise once again to provide that grain of hope that there is justice somewhere amidst the sea of lawlessness that engulfs the nation.

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