Congratulations Bushco!-Statute of Limitations on Bush’s 3/11/04 Illegal Wiretapping Expires Today

[kpete]

The Statute of Limitations on Bush’s March 11, 2004 Illegal Wiretapping Expires Today
By: emptywheel Tuesday March 10, 2009 9:53 am

Five years ago today, Andy Card and Alberto Gonzales rushed to John Ashcroft's ICU room to try to trick him into signing the re-authorization for George Bush's illegal wiretap program over Jim Comey's objections. Jim Comey arrived at the hospital in time to prevent Card and Gonzales from succeeding.

Five years ago tomorrow, George Bush re-authorized his illegal wiretap program with only the signature of Alberto Gonzales--then White House Counsel--to give it legal sanction.

Five years ago today and tomorrow, attorney Wendell Belew spoke to al-Haramain Director Soliman al-Buthi by telephone. Belew has reason to believe--and once had clear evidence that may have proved--those calls were wiretapped under Bush's illegal wiretap program.

.................

The first question any criminal defense attorney is going to ask is "Gee, is this crime within the statute of limitations"? FISA is subject to the Federal general statute of limitation contained in 18 USC 3282, which is five years.http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/ts_search.pl?title=18&sec=3282 And, remember, the statute starts to run when the crime is committed and/or when the government becomes aware of the conduct; in this case the Department of Justice knew about the conduct as, or before, it was being committed. When we, as citizens learned about it is not the relevant test.

That means that the statute of limitations on the potentially criminal March 11 wiretaps of Belew expire today. By all appearances, that means the statute will expire without George Bush being punished for illegally wiretapping an American citizen, even though clear evidence of that criminal wiretapping almost certainly exists.

more (and hopefully better news) at:
http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/03/10/the-statute-of-limitations-on-bushs-march-11-2004-illegal-wiretapping-expire-today/

[Hawkeye-X]

1. Murder and treason carries NO statute of limitations..

Plus, there are several warrants out there for Chimp and Darth's arrest in parts of the US, and countries.

Hawkeye-X