Pat Fitzgerald Chose Not to Consult with Margolis on Rove Indictment

[kpete]

Pat Fitzgerald Chose Not to Consult with Margolis on Rove Indictment
By: emptywheel Tuesday March 9, 2010 7:03 pm

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After the October (2005) grand jury testimony, Fitzgerald called Rove’s lawyer, Robert Luskin, and said they were leaning towards an indictment, Rove wrote. Luskin arranged to fly to Chicago to talk with Fitzgerald about the case and urged the prosecutor to consult with others in the Justice Department. In particular, Luskin recommended Fitzgerald talk to David Margolis, the DOJ’s highest-ranking career official and a 45-year veteran of the department. Fitzgerald eventually decided against contacting Margolis, Rove wrote, but agreed to bring in two other lawyers in the Chicago U.S. attorney’s office who had previously been uninvolved with the case to re-examine his thinking.

In an epic five-hour meeting, Luskin and Fitzgerald hashed out the various aspects of the case against the White House adviser. At the meeting, Fitzgerald said he was bothered by Rove’s non-recollection of the conversation with Cooper. If Rove did not remember the conversation with Cooper, Fitzgerald asked, why did he ask his aides in January 2004 to go through his phone records and notes to find any evidence of contact with Cooper? Luskin had the surprising answer, Rove wrote. The lawyer had learned from a friend who worked at Time that Cooper told colleagues he had spoken with Rove about Plame.

The tidbit is interesting not just because Fitz chose not to let DOJ’s fixer decide whether or not Karl would get indicted, but also for what that suggests about how much oversight Margolis had over Fitz’s decisions more generally. And remember, Margolis would have just barely taken over from Comey (who left DOJ in August 2005) as Fitz’s direct supervisor on this case in fall 2005.

Oh–and as I said probably 4 years ago–it was a journalist who helped Rove avoid any consequences for his role in leaking Plame’s identity.

Go figure.
http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2010/03/09/pat-fitzgerald-chose-not-to-consult-with-margolis-on-rove-indictment/

[Gabi Hayes]

1. ahh...memories of Fitzmas past

Fitzmas pissed?

can you imagine if there'd have been a Ken Starr type at the helm of that investo

btw, Starr was on Countdown tonight, giving it to Liz Cheney

as another thread posited, what's going on behind the scenes of what looks to be a concerted, coodinated effort to toss the spawn of satan under the publican bus?