Great Grand Jury info at Firedoglake.com, the all-Fitz-all-the-time blog

[Nothing Without Hope]

I love this site - irreverent, well-written, full of surprises, insightful, and updated constantly with the latest. (Don't miss today's hilarious Fitz Viagra Pen Story, which I've posted here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5193540)

I found this long blog entry by far the most helpful compendium (lots of great links) and exposition on Grand Jury arcana I have seen so far:

http://firedoglake.blogspot.com/2005/10/untying-few-legal-knots.html
Thursday, October 27, 2005

Untying a Few Legal Knots

The latest spate of news reports (or non-news reports, as the case may be) keep stirring up the same series of questions. Thought it might be helpful for a few legal knots to be undone, at least to the extent that I can do so with basic explanations. I previously addressed some issues on Grand Juries a while ago {http://firedoglake.blogspot.com/2005/10/inner-workings-of-grand-jury.html}, but some additional questions and facts have arisen that needed further explanation, so here goes.

Figured no one was really interested in a law review treatise on any of this, so I'm going to skip the arcane and just hit the essential bits. As with anything in the legal world, there are always all sorts of tangentially related matters, directly related exceptions and all sorts of other legal bits that may apply. This is, by no means, an exhaustive or comprehensive treatment of the subjects -- just a quick primer for the non-legal folks among us, or for the legal folks who never delve into criminal matters (it's a whole world unto its own, believe me).

Is this a Grand Jury or a Special Grand Jury? What is the difference?
After everyone working for weeks under the assumption that this was a special grand jury, based on media reports, yesterday's article in the WaPo revived that question for me. Since there has been no sourcing in any of the articles thus far, I decided to take matters into my own hands and called the Federal District Court Clerk's Office for the DC Circuit this morning. Amazing how such a little thing as the telephone can prove so useful, isn't it?

As it turns out, this is a regular old Grand Jury. The Clerk with whom I spoke told me that "no special Grand Jury is seated at this point" in the DC Circuit. (Am trying to not read into tea leaves that perhaps one could be seated shortly, and just take that as a no special grand jury at present, thanks.)

(snip - much more plus an excellent collection of informative links)

[shadowlight]

1. nice find, thanks nt

[shraby]

2. It is amazing what a telephone can do.

[Spazito]

3. Thanks for the link! Good information here

Love the 'telephone' comment, it is so true, lol.

[texpatriot2004]

4. Thanks for the firedoglake link n.t

[Nothing Without Hope]

5. YVW - don't miss their excuslve scoop on the Fitz Viagra Pen and their

funny - and dead-on accurate - take on Harriet Miers' withdrawal. Post with permalinks to these two great Firedoglake pieces here;

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=5193540&mesg_id=5193540
Thread title: Get your Fitz comic relief and more at Firedoglake:"The Viagra Pen Story"

[ChiciB1]

6. Just Want To Say Thanks For The Research....

I'll have to come back to it later.... time to start fixin' din-din!

[Nothing Without Hope]

7. kick - GD is moving at ram speed today!

Like a bunch of galley slaves rowing toward the crash: Fitzmas!

[Nothing Without Hope]

8. kick n/t

[shadowlight]

9. My first kick. nt

[Nothing Without Hope]

10. Hey - I'm honored!

Thanks! :toast:

[flyarm]

11. jane and redd are the best!!! thanks for taking this to so many!!

i can not go a couple hours without checking with firedoglake!!

and thanks to Jane Hamsher and reddhedd !!

powerful and insightful!!

fly

[redacted]

12. THANK YOU NWH! You rock!

Here in San Francisco it's late and I can't sleep because I'm so jazzed about Fitzmas. FDL is just great; thank you for the recommendation. Nite.