* I told you about Victoria Toensing’s claim a few days ago that US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald may have violated ethics rules when he went overboard with his comments about the allegations against Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Toensing is a longtime and sometimes inaccurate Fitzgerald critic, but she was on the Fox News channel this past weekend blasting away again…
Toensing: I wrote the op-ed piece after I talked to a journalist. I was explaining how he had violated the ethics law and the journalist said to me, Yeah, but he’s so quotable.
Gigot: Well, in our business it’s just what–
Toensing: That’s the attitude out there.
Gigot: Well, let me–if this is–if Fitzgerald is in fact violating Justice Department guidelines–and you make a persuasive case that he is–
Toensing: He has.
Gigot: –then why don’t his superiors at Justice rein him in?
Tonesing: I don’t know.
Gigot: Somebody has the obligation to–why don’t they? Why doesn’t the attorney general or the deputy attorney general rein him in? Are they too afraid of him?
Toensing: Well, I think by ending this case so soon, he has made himself untouchable as far as not only this administration but the next administration. And maybe that was one of the reasons that he came forward so fast. You know who he reminds me of, and that’s Eliot Spitzer, and there were those of us, including the Wall Street Journal editorial page, who knew how Spitzer was overplaying his power as an attorney general. I didn’t care about his sexual peccadilloes. I cared about how he was abusive as an attorney general.
And it’s the same thing. He threatens people. Fitzgerald threatened the late John O’Neill when he was sacked in New York because there was a leak to ABC News. Fitzgerald decided O’Neill had done it and told him he was going to indict him. I mean, he threatens people. I know numerous instances of that. That’s his weapon of choice.
* Meanwhile, the Daily Herald looks at something that a few national media types have used to claim Blagojevich is somehow innocent. “Did he actually do anything illegal?” they ask. Well…
The line between just talking and conspiracy, “that’s where it gets real gray,” said Terry Sullivan, a former Cook County prosecutor and now an attorney in private practice.
“Did you take that little extra step beyond boasting?” is the key question, Sullivan noted.
Len Cavise, a law professor at DePaul University, said there is a line between talking about a crime and committing one. A crime generally occurs, he says, when someone acts on the talk and that includes directing someone else to carry the crime out.
“It is like a mob boss who says, ‘Geez, I really like that guy dead.’ That is not a crime,” Cavise says. “But if he says, ‘Go kill that guy,’ that is a crime.”
Patrick Collins, the former federal prosecutor who put ex-Gov. George Ryan away, agrees with Fitzgerald - that for conspiracy, or schemes to defraud, you just have to agree with someone you will commit a crime for there to be a crime; you don’t actually have to ever have to take an “overt act” toward committing it. But just because it’s a crime doesn’t mean you’ll get a conviction, Collins noted.
“An agreement that’s not brought to fruition is still a crime, but it doesn’t have enough jury appeal,” Collins said.
“If Blagojevich said, ‘go do this,’ it’s enough. But it’s kind of a lousy case if Harris blows it off,” Collins noted.
“You want steps taken in furtherance of the agreement, or the jury’s not going to believe there was an agreement,” Collins said.
What Collins suspects prosecutors are busy doing is going around to the Senate candidates and company executives that Blagojevich is on tape talking about, and seeing if, on their end, anyone from the governor’s office ever showed up or called demanding anything.
* Related…
* Secret Tapes Helped Build Graft Cases In Illinois
* Fitzgerald Plays Peoria
* US Attorney Fitzgerald speaks at Bradley U.
* Special Agent in Charge just typical Naperville dad
- Gabriel - Monday, Dec 22, 08 @ 10:03 am:
Toensing’s case today is pretty weak today. She had a better argument when Fitzgerald was a Special Prosecutor in the Plame case.
- Amy - Monday, Dec 22, 08 @ 10:08 am:
Toensing is just a Libby lover. But, there are plenty of comments round the web from insiders who portray Fitgerald
as conservative (a Mukasey/Comey insider) so perhaps
betraying that side of the cause with certain prosecutions.
also, they laugh at liberals who consider him a savior since
he is not a liberal.
- EmptySuitParade - Monday, Dec 22, 08 @ 10:13 am:
This almost as funny as StateWideTom petending like he was not a big Blagoof booster.
First all hands want the lynching…now some are worried about due process
- Phineas J. Whoopee - Monday, Dec 22, 08 @ 10:17 am:
I think any federal prosecutor, investigator-i.e. FBI, IRS ect, State Rep or Senator, Constitutional Officer, Reporter, columnist or blogger or even family member should be excused if they sometimes go overboard when talking about this wretch of a human being.
He has abused his power and the trust of Illinois citizens so completely that he will rival Big Bill Thompson as our most corrupt public official in history so I would cut Fitz a little slack if he mentions what a bad guy we are dealing with.
There are many people that have to clean this mess up and wipe the stink off themselves just for having to work with this guy. It’s like cleaning up a tipped over truck of manure. It gets at everybody.
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- wordslinger - Monday, Dec 22, 08 @ 10:24 am:
I was intrigued over the weekend by Fitz’s visit to Bradley. During his tenure here, he’s been something of a ghost. To see him take a public appearance in Illinois outside of his territory gets you wondering about his political ambitions.
Toensing’s comments about Fitz and John O’Neil shouldn’t lead anyone to think that Fitz had a hand in getting him sacked. There were plenty of top FBI guys who wanted that, and they saw to it.
O’Neil was a legendary FBI terrorism expert — he was the lead investigator on the Cole, Khobujar Towers and WTC bombings — who clashed repeatedly and fericously with his lethargic superiors, especially Louis Freeh, about the threat of Al Queda.
Larger than life, he also was plagued by personal demons, questionable New Jersey associates and some pretty wild personal behavior, all of which contributed to his sacking.
In September 2001, he took a job as head of security at the WTC. He was last seen alive running into the the tower after the first plane hit. His remains were recovered there weeks later.
There’s an absolutely gripping account of his story in the 1-14-02 New Yorker (I couldn’t find it for free online). I believe there was a Frontline based on it, too. I can’t believe there hasn’t been a movie.
- Ahem - Monday, Dec 22, 08 @ 11:07 am:
My understanding is that so far we have a “complaint” so the big bullets may still be in Fitz’s pocket.
- Leroy - Monday, Dec 22, 08 @ 11:10 am:
Can’t blame someone for trying.
After all, these tactics worked like a charm when used against evil-demon Ken Starr back in the late 1990s.
- VanillaMan - Monday, Dec 22, 08 @ 11:29 am:
He will be impeached regardless.
- fitz fan - Monday, Dec 22, 08 @ 11:31 am:
lets at least wait for the indictment…im guessing he’s holding back…if he doesnt have additional evidence in support of the criminal complaint…he’s in trouble and i will be the first to criticize…
- Bill Baar - Monday, Dec 22, 08 @ 11:48 am:
I can’t believe there hasn’t been a movie.
O’Neal’s was a key line in the made-for-TV-story… I think.
- Louis G. Atsaves - Monday, Dec 22, 08 @ 11:57 am:
I am no criminal attorney but I would think that Fitzgerald has until the January 14th hearing to “shore up” his case against the Governor.
Did Fitzgerald go overboard on his comments during the announcement of the complaint and arrest? In a couple of instances he may have. Will those comments be enough to deny Blagojevich a fair trial? More than likely not. The comments seem to have slowly faded into the background the past few weeks.
When I read the 76 page affidavit attached to the complaint, I felt that the strong arming of Children’s Memorial Hospital would be a serious problem for the governor to defend. Not only was he caught on tape demanding a large donation from the CEO, he on several occasions demanded from aides that they call the CEO and ask or demand to know where the check was. That seems to take things from “mere jabber” or “mere talk” to some concrete execution of the plan.
The sensational charge was the “selling of the U.S. Senate seat.” But buried beneath the sensational charge lies a lot that Fitzgerald could build a pretty strong case on.
- HoosierDaddy - Monday, Dec 22, 08 @ 12:38 pm:
Is she bucking for a job or did she miss out on one? This woman has been out to get Fitzgerald for a while it seems.
- Ghost - Monday, Dec 22, 08 @ 12:41 pm:
It interesting of all the wrong doing det forth in the complain, that everyone focuese almost exclusively on the Senate seat. At times some of the media coverage of this issue makesit sound like if the ov can beat the slaim he tried to sell the Senate seat, he is somehow off the hook. There is a lot more meat on the bones of this complaint then just the Senate seat, and it looks like they have a good case on that one as well. Keep in mind the jury may be allowed to consider as circumstantial evidence on the selling of the senate seat the other conduct of pay to play. The other pay to play activites identify the pattern of selling off state positions.
- Rob_N - Monday, Dec 22, 08 @ 12:51 pm:
Fox “News” has to be in a bind on this … they don’t like Fitz because he went after National Hero and High Exalted Martyr™ Scooter Libby, but they also want to play him up because he’s pinched Barack Obama’s Governor from that Really Corrupt State that Barack Obama lives in…
Did I mention that the guy at the heart of Fitz’ investigation lives a few miles from Barack Obama and that he’s from the same political party as Barack Obama? Oh yeah … forgot to mention “Rostenkowski”.