Wilkes Gets His Subpoenas

Whooboy. It must be Dukestir day. Seth Hettena reports that Judge Burns just signed off on Wilkes’ subpoenas.

No wonder Judge Burns is pissed. Carolyn Delaney, the federalprosecutor in Sacramento who was given the task of investigating thepre-trial leak in the Brent Wilkes case, has filed a declarationindicating what steps she failed to take to find out the nothing shedidn’t bother to learn.

Here’s what Delaney says:

After reviewing the foregoing materials, I concludedthat an investigation in the circumstances of this case was unlikely tosucceed in identifying the source of any improper disclosure. Leakinvestigations are among the most difficult investigations to conduct.The disclosures reported here both in press accounts and by defensecounsel lacked any signature information. In addition, several dozenindividuals were involved in the indictment review process, and monthshad passed prior to my appointment, making it exceedingly unlikely thatI could determine when each person first learned of particularinformation and who else knew. Experience has taught me that leakinvestigations in such circumstances are rarely successful.

Hettena suggests Delaney may have judged DOJ to be really uninterested in discovering who the leakers are. Given that Hettena himself is one of the people who should expect to get his subpoena shortly, I wonder what he means by that.