Now we know why Fitzgerald didn’t indict anyone for the substantive crime in the Plame case: because the President of the United States can’t be indicted by a Federal prosecutor.
Why didn’t Patrick Fitzgerald indict anyone for the substantive crime of revealing the identity of a CIA NOC?
Perhaps because he discovered that the revelation was done on the orders of the President, who (at least arguably) can’t be indicted by a Federal prosecutor. Anyone down the chain (Libby, Fleischer, Rove) would have had a good defense that he or she was acting in good faith to carry out a Presidential order.
Author: Mark Kleiman
Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out.
Books:
Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken)
When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist
Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993)
Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989)
UCLA Homepage
Curriculum Vitae
Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com
View all posts by Mark Kleiman