OK - I am stupid. Why doesn't Fitzgerald go after Novak?

[ps1074]

Why doesn't the prosecutor go after Novak but instead he goes after Miller and Cooper? Wasn't it Novak who outed Wilson's wife? What do I miss?

[deacon]

1. you are not missing anything--all you can do is guess why he is

exempt--there is no reason he should be unless he sang already.

[shraby]

2. Only Fitzgerald knows. I think he's

getting his ducks in a row so when he has enough to really nail the perps it will stick. We know he's good at what he does so we'll just have to trust him. If he goes after Novak too quick he might end up letting the cabal skate.

edited for splening

[still_one]

3. novak testified

miller and cooper refused to

now cooper says he will testify so it is only miller who said she won't

it is as simple as that

Incidently, I am sure novak squelled big time, the thing is, was it the truth?

Novak is a very screwed up personality, he was brought up Jewish before he converted to become a Catholic. Something must have happened to him because he has an underlying dislike for Jews, and I am NOT referring to his position on Israel, those are two seperate issue, which in my view are NOT related

miller is Jewish, I am not sure about Cooper, but I wouldn't be surprised if Novak outed her. Hopefully he did it on the basis of fact and NOT prejudice

[Media_Lies_Daily]

4. Because Novak already testified and gave Fitzgerald what he wanted...

...Fitzgerald is after bigger fish to be honest.

Novak may still be indicted at the conclusion of the Grand Jury.

[demobabe]

5. I don't get this either

Altho I know Novak has been rattled by the possibility - he came unglued during the Primaries in New Hampshire. The Crossfire folks were reporting live from a Concord restaurant, and when they exited the restaurant, activist Brad Carr yelled "Traitor!" several times at Novak. Novak totally lost it, and rushed and shoved Brad, cocked his fist back to PUNCH Brad, but Paul Begala grabbed him and stopped him before he could land the punch. They quickly shuttled Novak into the CNN bus and shut the door.

[roguevalley]

6. Some backstory about Miller and Fitzgerald

The Miller/Fitzgerald Backstory

http://www.tpmcafe.com/story/2005/7/7/1148/62336

By Josh Marshall

From: Politics

Don't forget: This isn't the first time Plame prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has tangled with Judy Miller while investigating a leak out of the Bush White House.

A little more than a year ago, I reported on TPM how Fitzgerald had quite aggressively investigated another Bush White House leak in late 2001 and early 2002. Fitzgerald had been investigating three Islamic charities accused of supporting terrorism -- the Holy Land Foundation, the Global Relief Foundation, and the Benevolence International Foundation. But just before his investigators could swoop in with warrants, two of the charities in question got wind of what was coming and, apparently, were able to destroy a good deal of evidence.

What tipped them off were calls from two reporters at the New York Times who'd been leaked information about the investigation by folks at the White House.

One of those two reporters was Judy Miller.

Jul 07, 2005 -- 01:14:08 AM EST

Now, the way I found out about all this originally was entirely fortuitous. While reporting on a completely unrelated story, I was interviewing a Washington foreign policy hand. And after some time talking we get to exchanging notes and speculating about the Plame investigation. My biggest interest was in finding out just how straight a shooter Patrick Fitzgerald was and whether there was reason to think he'd mount a tough and independent investigation, given the fact that he'd been appointed by John Ashcroft's No.2 at the Justice Department.

My conversation partner told me he didn't have much doubt Fitzgerald would be aggressive. And he pointed to his knowledge of the earlier investigation. In his view (though I was never quite clear why), in the earlier case, the folks at the White House had actually had fairly clean hands. But Fitzgerald had gone after them in a big way. (See more details here.)

Given that backstory, he didn't think Fitzgerald would go easy on the White House if there was a case to be made. And largely on that basis, I've always assumed Fitzgerald's inquiry would be the real thing.

Now, what does it all mean?

Hard to say.

Certainly, one plausible way of reading the facts, though not the one I'm inclined toward, is that Fitzgerald's got it in for Miller. She blew an earlier case he was working on. And now he's going to stick it to her on this one.

Or perhaps there's another explanation. Maybe there's something Fitzgerald knows about Miller's working relationships with particular figures at NSC or on the White House staff that made him fix on her, despite the fact that she never even wrote on the story.

Of course, maybe it's just a weird coincidence, though it'd be quite a coincidence.

In any case, with all the heat bearing down right now on this story, I'm more than a little surprised this connection hasn't gotten more attention.

[Skittles]

7. Novak sang like a canary

no principles for that rat bastard

[rasputin1952]

8. Novak cooperated w/Fitzgerald...just goes to show the lack of

integrity in his view of journalism.

I am not saying that he should not have cooperated,(his personal decision), after all, he is the only one that printed the story; but for Miller to go to jail for what Novak did, is a pathetic sense of 'justice' in this nation.

Miller gave her word that she would not give up names, she stuck to her guns, Novak made the same agreement, and fired off names when not even pressed to do so. What I find so repulsive about this whole thing, is that Novak is guilty of having the story written, that is obvious; but he has not been called to account publicly as Miller/Cooper were.

There should be a Federal Shield Law. If the cretins in Congress can come up w/another stab at a Flag Burning Amendment, they could make an attempt top right this terrible wrong.

[melissinha]

9. Novak is complicit

He KNEW it was information that was not to be leaked to the public... nothing makes him immune.. then you have Rove's lawyer saying Rove DID leak... but didn't leak her actual name:

Rove told reporter about Plame’s role at CIA
But Bush aide didn’t identify covert agent by name, attorney says
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8504290/


Now its a game of who is to blame... what did Novak say about Rove? IF he hasn't come out to say that Rove gave her name specifically... he has to either say who told him specifically or HE SHOULD GO TO JAIL. Maybe that threat will get him to talk (if he hasn't already)