No Crime, Do The Time

Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, after failing to prove any crime was committed by anyone leaking Valerie Plame's name, has recommended to the court that Lewis Libby be sentenced as though he had committed the crime that wasn't committed.

In a Cheshire Cat climax to a case that he has admitted knowing from the beginning didn't exist, Fitzgerald has recommended that Scooter Libby serve three years in federal prison for mis-remembering, or for the extremists among us, lying about, a couple of completely meaningless conversations with reporters.

The circularities abound:

• There was no crime. We know this because the men who actually did the act that would have been criminal had there been a crime were not charged. Leaking Plame's name was not criminal. As recently as this morning Fitzgerald acknowledged that Valerie Plame Wilson was an administrative employee of the CIA not a covert agent. As such, no violation of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act occurred.

• If there had been a crime, others committed it. Fitzgerald knew two years ago the name of the State Department employee who "leaked" Plame's name to the press.

• No matter how Lewis might have testified about his conversations with the reporters who called him, the answers would not have changed the outcome of the case. Lewis' memory about momentary conversations of a year earlier differs from that of three reporters. Regardless, if he had testified exactly as they testified, the case would be just as empty as it is today.

• Having failed to prove a crime, the aptly named Special Prosecutor wants an appropriate sentence imposed for the crime that didn't exist.

Stalin? Nifong? Alice in Wonderland?

Where in this nation of "laws, not men" did Mr. Fitzgerald learn such as this?

UPDATE: Many in the obsolescent media make the point that because Mr. Fitzgerald says that Ms. Plame was covert a.) she was and b.) as such she was a covered employee under IIPA.

Again, an argument from Alice in Wonderland. With such, who needs trials? We could simply submit selected facts to Mr. Fitzgerald to prosecute, decide and impose sentences. The savings in judicial resources would be enormous.

The Special prosecutor had every opportunity that unlimited funds could buy in order for him to present the evidence, make his case and have the trial decide. That he did not do so speaks volumes.

I note that the CIA, after two full years of effort, is still unable to supply its own answer to the question, explaining that the question of Plame's status is so complex that it will need even more time in order to answer whether or not her role was covert.

UPDATE: The Wall Street Journal points out the un-American aspect of requesting a sentence based on evidence never presented to the jury, and suggests an immediate pardon of Mr. Libby by the President.