Reuters
July 8, 2007
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate Judiciary Committee may seek
testimony from controversial prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald
about the obstruction of justice case against vice presidential
aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby, two senators said on
Sunday.
Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the ranking Republican
member of the committee, said he wanted to hear from Fitzgerald
because, "I still haven't figured out what that case is
all about."
Libby, the one-time top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney,
was found guilty in March of obstructing an investigation into
who blew the cover of a CIA analyst whose husband had criticized
the Iraq war.
Libby was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison, but President
George W. Bush commuted the sentence, angering many Democrats
and some Republicans.
Sen. Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, has called for
the Judiciary Committee to seek Fitzgerald's testimony on the
matter.
"Reluctant as I am to agree with Senator Schumer, I think
he's right," Specter said on CNN's "Late Edition."
"Why were they pursuing the matter long after there was
no underlying crime on the outing of the CIA agent? Why were
they pursuing it after we knew who the leaker was?" Specter
said.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who chairs the Judiciary
Committee, said that with Specter's blessing, Fitzgerald would
likely be called.
"If he has no objection to Mr. Fitzgerald coming forward,
I think you may very well see Mr. Fitzgerald before the Senate
Judiciary Committee," Leahy said on the same CNN program.
Fitzgerald's critics point out no one was ever charged with
leaking the CIA agent's name and the prosecutor pursued Libby
long after he knew who had provided her name to the press.
But others said obstruction of justice was a serious crime
and Fitzgerald was right to continue the case.
Leahy said he saw no point in summoning Libby himself because "his
silence has been bought and paid for."
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