Why Isn't Bob Novak Going to Jail?

[Conservativesux]

Published on Friday, February 18, 2005

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Why Isn't Bob Novak Going to Jail?

by Tony Norman

Will someone please explain in simple, easy-to-understand language, why we never see right-wing pundit Bob Novak's name mentioned in the same breath as reporters facing jail time for contempt in the Valerie Plame affair?

Earlier this week, a three-judge panel of the federal appeals court in Washington upheld an earlier court ruling that New York Times reporter Judith Miller and Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper should be jailed for contempt for failing to disclose the source of a story neither had any intention of publishing in the first place.

Meanwhile, Bob Novak, the only columnist in the country who actually published Plame's identity in violation of federal law, sits comfortably ensconced on CNN's "The Capital Gang" bloviating as usual.

Miller and Cooper will probably go to jail for "witnessing" a federal crime and refusing to cooperate with a grand jury investigating the leak of a CIA agent's identity. So why is it that only two of the three reporters who allegedly "witnessed" the crime are being threatened?

More at:
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0218-29.htm

[SeanQuinn]

1. This is borderline LBN, but I think it fits via Valerie Plame case.

Nice article, I enjoyed.

[Lostnote03]

2. By Extension Gannon must play out first....There's a bigger "vermit"

....Rove could be the final chapter of the Plame corruption investigation?

[Dookus]

3. from what I've read

it's unknown if Novak has testified before the grand jury. He may have testified and spilled the beans. Or he may not have been called. Nobody knows yet.

But in either case, there's no grounds for charging him with contempt.

[TomClash]

4. If he testified why do they need Miller and Cooper's testimony?

If he didn't testify, why not?

[Dookus]

8. Because

they may need to corroborate Novak's story. It doesn't matter -the prosecutor doesn't really need a reason for someone's testimony beyond "because I said so".

If he didn't testify, it's likely because he wasn't called to do so.

[TomClash]

13. Yeah, thanks

The question was rhetorical.

I suspect Novak was interviewed but wasn't called as a witness before the Grand Jury.

At least one person in the White House made calls to seven reporters to try to get them to out Plame - six refused and Novak ran with it. Couldn't some of those other reporters "corroborate" Novak's story? What happened to them?

Fitzgerald started this well over a year ago with third party witnesses. This MIller/Cooper sideline seems like a stunt by Fitzgerald to delay and obfuscate his own investigation and to protect Bush, who appointed him to his job as USA in Chicago.

[Lexingtonian]

26. They may just be complicators

They may have been in the know and communicated with Novak, somehow complicating the proscution's trail of evidence to the WH leaker/felon and making that person able to duck out of rationally inescapable implication- s/he could pretend that Miller and Cooper had a phantom different, non-identifiable, source.

Fitzgerald probably guaranteed Miller and Cooper immunity from prosecution so they can't duck behind the Fifth Amendment.

Novak assuredly has some plea agreement, probably immunity from prosecution, in place. But what it has done to his faith in the Cause and sense of his fallibility and ego- a fellow like him only does this stuff for the adulation and fawning obituaries as One Of The Good Guys and He Wasn't Fooled- is probably as devastating to him as the degradation of a trial and potential incarceration.

[MidwestTransplant]

17. Fitzgerald knows what he is doing

If he hasn't called Novack yet, it for a reason. Maybe because he faces criminal charges himself and thus couldn't be compelled to testify.

[leveymg]

19. Post edited by author. See below.

[leveymg]

20. Novak cut a deal early. Fitzgerald moved on to Scooter and his

circle, which is where the case died on November 4th. There was no need to hold Novak in contempt. As the Grand Jury testimony is going to remain sealed, and no big-time politicos are going to be indicted, we'll never know what Bob Novak said.

Case closed.

[Freddie Stubbs]

5. Perhaps he has cooperated with investigators

As far as I know, Novak has never said that he hasn't cooperated.

[Senior citizen]

6. 'Cuz rich white pukes don't go to jail? n/t

[Callboy]

7. He snubs everyone and doesnt think there is a remote

chance of going to the can. Out to be ashamed of himself. I cant stand the sight of him. Has he ever developed a callous on his hands?

[demgrrrll]

9. I read a great Buzzflash editorial about this issue. The author of the

opinion piece feels that Novak has not been called to testify because there goal isn't bringing someone down at the WH. Per this article they are trying to shift the focus to Miller's right to protect her sources rather than have Novak testify who leaked the information to him. The writer felt that the game plan was to use the "common knowledge defense" to circumvent the process. There was some mention about Gonzales taking the two attorneys working on this to the justice department with him..implying that this was part of the plan to shift the focus from the WH. I am doing this from memory so I may have missed something. I think the article is up today. It may be about Gannon and the Plame story is an aside of sorts.

[bambo53]

10. Public knowledge would make it no crime

If more than a few people knew Plame was an undercover agent for the CIA then revealing her as such would not be a crime. Robert Novak was using that defense in the beginning before he stopped talking about the case.

By forcing two reporters who didn't write about it to admit they knew she was an undercover spy, then there's no crime. IMHO

[polmaven]

11. 'Cuz he sang like the fat lady!

This is a man with very little in the way of integrity, journalistic or otherwise.

On edit...Good thing it's Friday. I needed to go back and add punctuation...Left it out completely!

[area51]

12. "Why Isn't Bob Novak Going to Jail?"

The same reason why Kenny-Boy Lay & Rusty Limpdick aren't in jail; they're nazis & friends of this administration.

---

"Prosperity is just around the corner." -- Herbert Hoover
"The economy has turned a corner." -- GW Bush

Herbert Hoover = GW Bush

Neither man cared about the Depression their economic policies created.

[DemoTex]

18. Area 51 (great screen-name!) .. about Kenny-boy.

I used to work for Ken Lay (pre-Enron) as a Lockheed JetStar-2 and Learjet 55 pilot. Th Everly Brothers sang it best: "Stories We Could Tell."

[leveymg]

22. Who has the on-board tapes, DemoTex?

That kinda guy gets tapped (and taped) early in his career.

B-) :evilgrin: :smoke:

[Robert Oak]

14. cuz guys who leak for the white house don't go to jail

while real reporters do.

He's clearly got something going as a plant somewhere..
he also wasn't fired by CNN...

yet he *IS* the leak!

[Name removed]

15. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Bigmack]

16. I'm one sick puppy...

... one of my favorite fantasies is Novak doing hard time with a large cruel man who thinks Bob's "old but cute".

I'd like Novak to end up with a size 19 asshole.

"Pundit this, bitch!"

[CheshireCat]

21. Why?

How Novak has gone untouched in the Plame case is just insane to me. At least, this editorial questions the situation, but it doesn't explain how these judges and other feds can legally ignore Novak's role.

Can anyone try to help me get my head around this insanity?

[CheshireCat]

23. kick

i hope by kicking this post that someone will be able to answer my question. It's in the post above this one.

[dand]

24. Because that evil old bastard has the goods on all the right people

if he sings, heads roll.

[Gyre]

25. Two words

Ken Lay. :grr:

[Igel]

27. Here's a bit o' speculation.

Knowing that Novak is free doesn't tell us anything about whether or not he's testified or the subject of the investigation. It depends who they're after.

First, if they're after somebody in the WH, Novak's not the biggest fish to fry. They may need his help to nail the guy, he cut a deal and helped, but his testimony alone is insufficient. That's option 1.

If they're after Novak, I doubt that he can be forced to testify against himself at a grand jury; until they get evidence against him, he walks, and he doesn't have to provide it. Just publishing Plame's name and job isn't enough. Nailing Novak involves proving that he knew Plame's identity was classified <i>and</i> that the government was taking measures to keep it secret. That's a high bar to jump--if she wasn't in the field, her identity may be secret and classified, but only because it hadn't been declassified--not because it was still being activity concealed (there's a subtle difference that the law seems to require, I think). Remember, the law is to protect agents in the field, not in a Langley office. Anyway, that's option 2.

Both are plausible, both account for why Novak's walking while others are threatened with jail time. There may easily be a third scenario. Or more.

[McCamy Taylor]

28. Cause Gonzales' No. 1 Job is NOT to Prosecute the Right Wingers

No0vak could axe murder a baby on the Whitehouse lawn on live TV and they would find a way not to press charges if it was in the political best interest of * to avoid them.