The revelation of the fact that Bush knew about Rove’s involvement in Plamegate means that this is no longer just about Rove and Libby. This is about how George Bush covered up Karl Rove’s involvement in leaking the name of Valerie Plame to the media, which may have caused the loss of life of a CIA agent.
Not only does the Espionage Act directly cover the treason of Rove and Libby, it covers Bush’s concealment of Rove’s action by failing to report his knowledge of the affair to Patrick Fitzgerald.
The Washington Times editor Wes Purden guffaws this morning about how incomprehansible to the average person this is and how Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame were living a glamourous lifestyle. But the joke is on him, since he focused on the Espionage Act and I looked it up.
Let’s go back to the October 19th Daily News report that Bush knew about Rove’s involvement and failed to act. Here is what I wrote:
The New York Daily News has revealed that Bush knew about Rove’s treason, but did nothing to stop it. I have now switched over to the Impeach Bush camp, since Bush knew about an act of treaon, but failed to do the responsible thing, fire Karl Rove, and refer the matter to prosecutors. This means that Bush’s talk about restoring honor and dignity to the White House was an oxymoron designed to cover up for his behavior.
The sources for the Daily News spin the Bush reaction as one of anger at Rove. But being angry is not good enough. Bush did not fire Rove. In fact, he was lying when he said that he would fire anyone who was involved because he had already known that Rove was involved. Actions speak louder than words, and by his actions, Bush showed that he was angry at being caught, not angry over Rove’s act of treason.
I knew in my gut that this was an impeachable offence. Now, I know for a fact. Bush, by concealing the involvement of Rove by failing to report him to Fitzgerald violated the Espionage Act himself. Here is the relevant law:
Whoever harbors or conceals any person who he knows, or has reasonable grounds to believe or suspect, has committed, or is about to commit, an offense under sections 793 or 794 of this title, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both.
This is in addition to Maurice Hinchey’s contention, with which I agree, that Bush violated laws against lying and obstructing Congress by lying about Niger and the extent of Iraq’s WMD program.
Section 793 covers Rove, Libby, and their underlings. It could also cover Cheney if Fitzgerald can prove that the VP was involved in a conspiracy to leak information to a person not entitled to recieve it:
(f) Whoever, being entrusted with or having lawful possession or control of any document, writing, code book, signal book, sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blueprint, plan, map, model, instrument, appliance, note, or information, relating to the national defense, (1) through gross negligence permits the same to be removed from its proper place of custody or delivered to anyone in violation of his trust, or to be lost, stolen, abstracted, or destroyed, or (2) having knowledge that the same has been illegally removed from its proper place of custody or delivered to anyone in violation of its trust, or lost, or stolen, abstracted, or destroyed, and fails to make prompt report of such loss, theft, abstraction, or destruction to his superior officer – Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both.
So, any classified information relating to national defense that is deliberately leaked (violation of trust) is covered under this section.
Not only that, there is a provision for conspiracy as well:
(g) If two or more persons conspire to violate any of the foregoing provisions of this section, and one or more of such persons do any act to effect the object of the conspiracy, each of the parties to such conspiracy shall be subject to the punishment provided for the offense which is the object of such conspiracy.
So, if Fitzgerald can prove that Cheney was involved in a conspiracy to leak classified information to the press, then Cheney will have to go as well.
The Washington Times’ Wes Pruden has a column this morning full of guffaws and elaborate rationale for why this is a witchhunt incomprehensible to mere mortals:
Ay, as we Robert Burns fans are wont to say, there’s the rub. There may not be one. So Mr. Fitzgerald has to invent one. Perhaps a violation of an obscure clause in the Espionage Act of 1917, enacted in the frenzy of the war to end all wars. It’s not like Messrs. Rove and Libby have given information to the Krauts about the disposition of troops at Chateau Thierry, or along a salient of the allied line in the Argonne Forest, or have been conducting secret talks with the kaiser (though you never know), but a savvy D.A. knows how to fit a defendant to a 1917 crime when he can’t fit a 1917 crime to the defendant.
If you think all this sounds like the muddled plot of a made-for-cable TV movie, you’re right. Nobody really knows any longer what the Valerie Plame/Judy Miller/CIA/Yellow Fruitcake/Karl Rove/Robert Novak/Joseph Wilson IV/Bill Keller caper is about. All that those of us paid to follow it have figured out is that it’s vaguely about the media, sort of, and nobody three miles beyond Tyson’s Corner has the foggiest idea, or wants one. We’re going to bore you with it as long as Patrick Fitzgerald keeps the scam going, which will be as long as Congress keeps him in the style to which he has become accustomed.
Go to sleep. It will be OK. George Bush is watching over us, protecting us from the next terrorists. Don’t meddle in affairs you don’t understand.
But seriously, this is about no mere technical violation of the law. A man may have died as the result of Rove’s treason. One person dying as the result of committing treason is too many. And covering up for that treason is an impeachable offense.
The last joke is on Pruden.
