Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
It would do well for us to remember what happened the last time a special counsel was appointed to serve for the United States Department of Justice.
In July of 2003, a newspaper columnist published the name of a CIA employee who was said to have covert (secret) status. The unauthorized disclosure of a covert CIA employee is against the law.
The employee named was Valerie Plame and the scandal became known as the Plame affair.
On Oct. 1, 2003, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage informed Secretary of State Colin Powell and the FBI that he was responsible for leaking Plame’s name. Armitage further stated that the leak was “inadvertent.”
At this point the case should have been closed. I miss Paul Harvey because he always had, “The rest of the story.”
The director of the FBI at the time was Robert Muller, who held that post from September 2001 through September 2013.
On Dec. 30, 2013, the acting attorney general of the United States appointed U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald via letter that, “I hereby delegate to you all the authority of the Attorney General with respect to the Department’s investigation into the alleged unauthorized disclosure of a CIA employee’s identity, and I direct you to exercise that authority as Special Counsel independent of the supervision or control of any officer of the Department.”
The acting attorney general who appointed Fitzgerald was James Comey. This same James Comey would follow FBI Director Muller into that post. Cue Paul Harvey.
Neither Armitage, nor Powell, nor Muller nor Comey, all sworn to uphold the law, informed the public of this charade nor stopped the special counsel from proceeding to “solve” this already explained scandal.
Fitzgerald’s efforts resulted in Vice President Dick Cheney’s Chief of Staff Scooter Libby being convicted of obstruction of justice, perjury and making false statements.
This remains one of the most malicious miscarriages of justice I have ever seen.
As of today, an intense investigation led by FBI Director Comey has found no evidence of any collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. Comey informed the president, the Senate and the House of Representatives that Donald J. Trump is not under investigation.
On May 17, 2017, Muller was appointed to serve as special counsel for the Department of Justice to investigate “any coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump.”
History always repeats itself; the second time as farce.
Rube Render is the Curry County Republican chairman. Contact him at: