December 11, 2008
Re: Fitzgerald and Blagojevich.
This blogger has been "off the air" for some time now, basically because the last couple of months have been perhaps the most intense work-siege I have experienced in the 45 years since graduation from law school. I plan to write at least one other blog before New Year's -- likely a sort of semi-all-encompassing one covering things that have occurred lately, and briefly explaining some of the matters that have occupied so much of my time. But in the meanwhile I cannot resist dashing off a short piece on the Blagojevich matter. For I wish to present a possibility that, although it will strike lots of people as wrong or even crazy, may nonetheless ultimately prove accurate. If it does, you can say you read it here first.
Let me summarize the possible view being proffered this way: With regard to the claims of crime that Patrick Fitzgerald spoke of in his press conference, and only with regard to those matters, don't be utterly shocked if ultimately Blagojevich is acquitted on those particular claims. Maybe Fitzgerald can make a conspiracy to commit those crimes stick, but, on the other hand, maybe even conspiracy charges will lose.
Two things should be said about all this preliminarily. One is that I am sour on Fitzgerald. The cause of this disgruntlement is the Libby case. There Fitzgerald came on very powerfully at his initial press conference, where he made it appear that he was after really big game. But he was the lion that roared but then belched forth only a mouse, not going after or convicting Libby for what was done to Plame and not touching a hair of the head of the arch-criminals Cheney and Rove -- not to mention Bush. So when Fitzgerald came on so strong about Blagojevich, this writer's reaction was that it was wise to be skeptical unless Fitzgerald showed a lot more than he apparently could.
The other preliminary point is that the possibility being propounded here should not be misunderstood as a defense of or a liking for Blagojevich. He seems a very distasteful crook; the subject of political crookedness will reappear below.
What did Fitzgerald show at his press conference? He seems to have shown two things. He showed conversations, basically among Blagojevich and advisors as I understand it, about economic and political benefits that Blagojevich and his wife might obtain from a Senate appointment. (There may have been conversations with potential buyers of the Senate seat or their representatives, but mainly the conversations discussed by Fitzgerald were among Blagojevich people as I understand it. (Am I wrong about this?))
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