"Let's Make a Deal: The Legalese of PlameGate" (What's going on now)

[KoKo]

Let's Make a Deal : The Legalese of PlameGate

Reuters is speculating that Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald may be offering putative defendants one last chance to make a deal in the Valerie Plame investigation.

The prosecutor investigating the outing of a covert CIA operative has yet to say whether he will bring charges, but he has decided to announce decisions in the case in Washington rather than Chicago, where he is based, his spokesman said on Monday....It is unusual for Fitzgerald's office to offer comment on any aspect of the case and Monday's statement led some observers to wonder if it might be a signal that a decision was imminent or that Fitzgerald was trying to increase pressure on potential targets to cut a deal.

It has to be a tempting offer for several of them.

The first reason is the expense of an Indictment. Those under the gun are not elected officials. Unlike Tom DeLay, and perhaps Karl Rove, for whom the radical right might spring to life, they may not be able to raise a significant amount of outside defense funds. It's one thing to represent someone pre-indictment in a criminal investigation. It's another to represent them post-indictment. I would guess anyone indicted in this case is looking at a minimum of hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees. Many will be tempted to cut their losses now, particularly if they can plead to a misdemeanor, rather risk a felony conviction and mortgage their families' future.

-SNIP-

This is the week that all of the subjects facing Indictment will be faced with their "come to Jesus" moment. Spouses will be telling them to cut their losses and think of the family. They will be forced to juxtapose their loyalty to the Administration with their loyalty to their families and their interest in self-preservation.

My experience tells me that only those who truly believe they are innocent -- and those whom Fitzgerald advises are looking at felonies and jail time even with a deal -- will hold out.


More of this good read at...........................
http://talkleft.com/new_archives/012778.html

[wtmusic]

1. $Hundreds of thousands to Cheney is a drop in the bucket

He would fight it all the way

[napi21]

4. Of course Cheney would fight to the end, but I doubt he's the one

Fitz is looking to flip.

[napi21]

2. That whole story is right, you know. The most loyal supporters

will rat you out when it comes down to a "you or me" decision!

I think it's an excellent move on the part of the prosecutor. His job and his life would be soo uch easier if he had solid testimony to prove his accusations!

[HereSince1628]

3. Sounds reasonable to me. . .

As more squealers come out, the value of information the remaining targets can be less valuable. Seems like a person with some inside information would be motivated to make a deal while that info has still got some value.

[crispini]

5. The first comment on the blog is very good:

Posted by virginiacynic at October 18, 2005 06:26 AM
There are many reasons that people refuse deals. Sometimes the person has lied to the family and cannot reverse course; public humiliation for that person is easier to bear than humiliation within the family.
Many people cannot dispassionately evaluate and make what is in essence an economic decision and instead behave the same way that many gamblers and investors do and refuse a known small loss( i.e. a short jail term offered in a deal) and instead try the case in hope of a a huge win even while risking a large loss( i.e., a long prison term if the jury finds against them.) Instead of analysis they rely on intuition and sometimes intuition leads to decisions that are unsupported by facts. That sort of behavior is widespread among defendants.

Many defendants start from a view that this disaster cannot happen to them. For some political types who have largely been successful and perhaps faced a difficult situation before, a clear evaluation of a criminal case is not easy even when he or she has good to excellent legal help. These peolple then believe their own stories that hard work can overcome adversity, and let arrogance and pride coupled with a false sense of their skill in talking with people cloud their thinking and result in their trying risky or unwinnable cases.
They do not understand the fundamental differences between criminal proceedings and everyday life. The lesson can be painful.We will have to abide the event.

[Toots]

6. My experience tells me that only those who truly believe they are innocent

Can there be a single Republican that truly believes they are innocent? Every single Republican that voted these people back into office is guilty and they know that in their hearts. They all put their Party before their country and should damn well be hanging their heads about now...Those that are actually within this Cabal know full well how corrupt they are, they just don't want to be punished for it. I suspect they are "turning in clusters" because deep down they are all cowards.

[KoKo]

7. I'm thinking that maybe lower level staffers the young ones might be

prone to giving more information. They aren't has hardened as the long time politico's. Who knows, maybe Fitz will even get someone who had a clerical job to come forward because they are afraid they know something that might mean later on they would have to testify to.

It's kind of a flushing out process to see who thinks who might rat on whom and how much of your life (if you are in your 20's or early 30's) do you want to spend in court bogged down by legal troubles.

It kind of makes sense he would use the last weeks to try to see if there's any more info out there he can use. As much as we are all tired of this and want to know...it's worth the wait. :shrug: