The Prosecutor: The Mystery Man

[CatWoman]

Patrick Fitzgerald has sent a reporter to jail and pulled back the curtain on top staffers' press chats. Does he have a case?

Patrick Fitzgerald has Washington guessing

By Jonathan Darman and Michael Isikoff
Newsweek

July 25 issue - Growing up in Brooklyn, N.Y., in the 1970s, Patrick Fitzgerald was so determined to attend the prestigious Regis High School that even a rejection letter couldn't keep him away. When his carefully prepared application was denied, Fitzgerald dialed up Regis's director of admissions and protested that there must have been some mistake. Sure enough, the school had mixed up his entrance exam with that of another Patrick Fitzgerald of Brooklyn who got lower marks. The right Patrick Fitzgerald entered Regis that fall.

Now, Washington is wondering if it's gotten Patrick Fitzgerald wrong, too. For nearly two years, the special prosecutor in the Valerie Plame leak investigation has been the city's mystery man, pursuing a murky investigation whose only targets seemed to be members of the press. But as new details emerge about White House efforts to discredit Iraq-war critic Joe Wilson and his CIA agent wife, Washington insiders are seeing Fitzgerald in a new light. Maybe his hard-nosed investigation will do more than just punish reporters. Maybe Fitzgerald's leak investigation will actually uncover who leaked.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8599914/site/newsweek/

[roguevalley]

1. he's a bulldog. he's had rounds with miller already. he's going to

go wherever this leads, hell or high water.

[sundancekid]

2. and now we can also say: hello pesky Judith Miller ... the dots connect

from same source link in the OP:

~snip

That doesn't mean he's afraid to step on some toes, especially when they belong to members of the media. Associates say Fitzgerald is wary of reporters, dating back to his days trying terrorist cases. Concerned about protecting national security, he'd go to extraordinary lengths to keep sensitive material secret, only to see it published by meddling journalists. A particularly annoying offender, coincidentally, was Judith Miller, the New York Times reporter. Fitzgerald sent her to jail earlier this month for failing to comply with a court order to testify before the grand jury about conversations she had with sources on a matter about which she never wrote a story. In an earlier, unrelated clash, Fitzgerald had accused Miller of compromising a probe into Islamic charities by phoning one of the groups just before a government crackdown. Launching a leak investigation, he tried to get ahold of Miller's phone records and those of a colleague at the Times. The Times claimed its reporters were following standard practice and that there was no evidence they compromised a federal investigation. A federal judge quashed Fitzgerald's subpoenas.

~snip

[sattahipdeep]

3. yep......same stuff as asscroff and the rest of that buch bunch

Patrick J. Fitzgerald began serving as the United States Attorney
for the Northern District of Illinois on September 1, 2001. Mr. Fitzgerald
was initially appointed on an interim basis by Attorney General John Ashcroft
before being nominated by President George W. Bush. The United States Senate confirmed
his nomination by unanimous consent on October 23, 2001, and President Bush signed his
commission on October 29, 2001.

http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/iln/aboutus/patrickjfizgerald.html

[Straight Shooter]

4. Stop looking at the surface.

I cannot remember the name, Cohen or Coen, something like that, was the man who recommended to bush that Fitzgerald be appointed. This Cohen or Coen (whatever his name is) happens to be a friend of Wilson.

Would you prefer that Fitzgerald be a Democrat? We'd never hear the end of it.

You can bet your life that bush wishes he had never heard of Fitzgerald, much less signed the paper to appoint him.

[sattahipdeep]

5. Apples

Look Deeper....
Because you find one good thing does not mean its all good.

One Rotten spot spoils the apples.

http://slate.msn.com/id/2106812/