Fitz to Obama: Twas a Week before Fitzmas
I’ve been saying that the wingnut calls for Obama to release all the gory details of what Rahm said to Blago (it went something like: fuck fuck fuck shit asshole fuck) probably didn’t account for Fitz’ well-known desire that witnesses in his investigations remain silent until he can complete the investigation.
Now, Obama has made it clear that Fitz has asked for a delay.
"At the direction of the President-elect, a review of Transition staff contacts with Governor Blagojevich and his office has been conducted and completed and is ready for release. That review affirmed the public statements of the President-elect that he had no contact with the governor or his staff, and that the President-elect’s staff was not involved in inappropriate discussions with the governor or his staff over the selection of his successor as US Senator.
"Also at the President-elect’s direction, Gregory Craig, counsel to the Transition, has kept the US Attorney’s office informed of this fact-gathering process in order to ensure our full cooperation with the investigation.
"In the course of those discussions, the US Attorney’s office requested the public release of the Transition review be deferred until the week of December 22, in order not to impede their investigation of the governor. The Transition has agreed to this revised timetable for release," said Obama Transition Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer. [my emphasis]
If nothing else, that gives us a good idea of how much longer Fitz thinks he might need before he gets an actual indictment.
I am lost in admiration.
I get that a lot ! *G*
Cue the wingnuts to flip back to their position that Fitzgerald is an out-of-control Democratic partisan! <g>
It also gives us a good idea as to when the Bush White House may schedule their release of pre-Christmas pardons. Bush probably won’t have a better opportunity to minimize their impact by dumping them in the wake of a larger story, leaving editors to choose between leading with the report from Obama’s transition team or leading with the BushCo pardons.
You’ve got a week to decide, folks.
Citizen Peterr:
Good thinkin’ Brother Peterr, I think yer on ta sumpthin’!
Good, because last night on ABC News Chris Bury was furious, FURIOUS that Obama had “refused” to release the details of all communications.
I’m sure an apology from Ed Rendell will be forthcoming – he was enraged Obama allowed a one-day story to become a three-day story.
Sometimes we don’t always get the Fitzmas we want, but we get another Fitzmas….right at Fitzmas.
Let me guess.
Chris Bury has never demanded, DEMANDED that Cheney make clear what role he had in the outing of Valerie Plame to Judy Miller?
I thought so.
quite teh snarkelicous, I am wondering if we could get an abc email campaign about your very point
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think ABC’s Nightline ever did a single feature on Plame.
Hear ! Hear !
This should be directed at every talking head and their mock outrage.
What role Cheney had in doing damage to U.S. National Security. Will that CIA damage assessment having to do with Plame’s outing ever be available to the peasants?
Maybe it’s just because the Obama camp didn’t do anything wrong, while in the Plame outing the Bush/Cheney camp DID do something wrong….but still, and administration (or admin-elect) that’s actually COOPERATING with a criminal investigation, and is willing to be TRANSPARENT about it…
Whowouldathunk?!
Sorry, it’s not working: a new pol shows that most Americans aren’t falling for the BS:
http://blog.washingtonpost.com…..id=topnews
maybe it’s time to go back to Rev. Wright and the Indonesian madrassa stuff…
I would think that if Bush is going to go all ticker tape parade with pardons he would do it on a Friday.
bullshit
all this “Fitzmas” crap went to his head
that’s what’s REALLY going on
(ducking and running while adjusting the tinfoil beanie)
SF gadfly politician Willie Brown is
an idiotinfuriatingly clueless:Sounds like Willie and DiFi might have been talking about her seat should she run for guv.
Kinda makes a person wish they’d been a strategically placed bug on some wall in Mr. Brown’s vicinity back when he was in office, no?
just a couple of guys sitting around and talking
Willie Brown talking about someone loving the spotlight is hilarious. He would talk to a lamp post given the chance. Loves that camera.
Sorry. Let me correct that for you:
There. I think that’s right.
you nailed it.
I accept your correction. He has always been a joke to me.
A former housemate of mine was once recruited by Brown’s folks to be the next Willie Brown.
I moved shortly thereafter and keep googling the roommate to make sure he hasn’t done so. Best I can tell, he’s just a corporate lawyer like he was. Luckily, bc I have a nice memory of that housemate.
Willie gives wheeling and dealing a new definition altogether. He works a room like nobody I have ever seen.
willie brown is a unique creature
his type usually RUN when the lights go on …
Blagojevich is a jerk thats for sure. But I find it curious that all the weight of Fitz came down the day after Blogo threatened to stop doing business with the Bank Of America. Further Fitz really seems to not have been fully ready to present his full case.
Blago started to color outside the lines and the powers that be pushed the button to bring him down. A very chilling message to other Governors and to Obama himself. I am sure there is a similar button for every working politician.
Think Spitzer, the day after he writes a article last Feburay in the WSJ warning about unregulated financial markets and the disaster to come, he is caught with a hooker in a hotel. We all forget the warning and swill in the scandal of it all.
Don’t be distracted by the bright shiny objects, particularly if they are being illuminated by the MSM. As the question… who benefits?
There are powers at work here much greater than we can imagine.
Um, you do realize that the complaint is dated December 7, while Blago came down on BoA on December 8, right?
So you’re arguing that Fitz got an arrest warrant for Blago anticipating he’d got after BoA the following day?
>
Under the Speedy Trial Act, Pat has only 30 days from the date of arrest to file a Criminal Information or an Indictment.
Ah, that’s it. Gotta button it up.
Rahm’s side of the conversation with Harris (?) may have some useful nuggets (other than @#$#%s) for Fitz. Even if only to confirm a whiff of paying for playing…
thanks, i was missing that part.
Hasn’t he filed a Criminal Information, that being the document everyone was reading and quoting early last week?
EW — do you think that Fitz already had a grand jury seated prior to the arrest? any time limits with that? does the dec 22 mean he’ll let them go home for xmas?
oh, and by the way, for the rest of us: Fitzmas doesn’t happen without emptywheel, you know, rooting out the best truffles for Wigilia!
I know you asked EW, but allow me to chime in. In a normal week, there is always a grand jury sitting. As one GJ expires, a new one is empanelled. If the district is busy enough to need more than one GJ at a time, they try to stagger the expiration dates (otherwise you have abrief period where no work can get done while the new GJ is being empanelled. Technically, no subpeonas can be issued at that time).
The regular GJ hears all kinds of cases and issues many different indictments .
I think what you are referrin gto is a S[ecial Grand Jury, which is a GJ that only hear’s one matter and may not meet every day.
Federal Grand juries can be seated for a year or so and called on a schedule or for a specific case. They would be home going about their business otherwise.
That’s the case in special GJs. Regular GJs sit evey day (or a 4 day week) for a set period and then are done. If you are in the middle of presenting a case when a regular GJ expires, you have to start all over again when the next Gj is empanlled
Given the active wiretaps Fitz had on Blago’s home, office and phone he could have easily been privy to Blago’s plan to hit BofA. I am sure Blago was talking about it with his people for days before he went public.
You know, surprisingly enough, not every indictment of a governor is a conspiracy run by the so-called Masters of the Universe.
Sometimes, the governor is excessively stupid and corrupt and just gets caught being stupid and corrupt.
I would look on Blagojevich and Bank Of America as a politician that knew he was already in trouble and wanted to do something to put a little perfume around himself in hopes it would cover the stench.
Right. And according to the FBI guy on the case this morning, the decision to arrest him was made a week before he was arrested.
So you’re saying that Fitz anticipated not only Blago’s response, but the sit-in itself?
That’s some amazing prescience on Fitz’s part.
Yes, Pat is very impressive.
Marcy i
Is there a link to the quote?
No, it was an emailed release.
1,857 DAYZ AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND…
Citizen emptywheel and the Firepup Freedom Fighters:
This is pretty definitive info for the reality based community, but of course the fascists won’t let it go until 2010 when we have a chance ta vote most a the remainin’ wingnuts from office. Do you think Fitz’s case has been jepordized by havin’ ta move earlier than he wanted…aren’t we lookin’ at “conspiracy” to commit felonies instead of accomplished felonies and doesn’t that make a trial much tougher than if money, gifts, jobs etc. had been actually exchanged?
KEEP THE FAITH AND PASS THE AMMUNITION, THE FIGHT IS A LONG WAY FROM OVER!!!
yes!
Article at Huff Post says Fitz staff wanted to wait so they could nab both the seller and the buyer of the Senate seat. Don’t know anything except that.
exactly. have to see the pattern of several negotiations to form an indictment for conspiracy.
Consequences for the co-conspirators… and a tighter case.
I think it depends on which case.
I’m sure Fitz had to move sooner than he wanted. And who knows whether the JJJ/Blago meeting last Monday would have been different had the Trib not broke the wiretap story. He did, however, get the fundraiser on that Saturday before he arrested. And JJS obviously feels teh need to come clean about stuff, since he got a lawyer. So I’m guessing he has more than we see in the JJJ thing, though maybe not as easily prosecuted as if it would have been if the Trib woudln’t have gone with their story.
Fitz seems more assured about the solidity of the Cubbies part of the story–so it may be he’s got stuff we’re not seeing there, specifically about the efforts Blago made to get the state to do Zell’s work for him. Also, Fitz has talked to the Trib Financial Advisor this week, too.
And then tehre’s the larger hosptial stuff. I bet he’s got that cold, but didn’t give us those detils bc he wanted to hide the identity of who is cooperating and who not. We know Rezko’s status has changed since. And presumably Wyma is much more exposed now that the Trib published.
Finally, given the way he just pointed to the JJJ stuff, but didn’t say what he had, and he just pointed to what appear to be further discussions with Rahm, I’m guessing he’s got stuff that he hasn’t let on.
thanks
I think the shakedown that Blago was attempting with the funds for the childrens hospital might be the bigger stick.
%42
Totally agree–but it’s also the part he wanted to hide, so long as he could, bc it touches a lot more people.
So you give enough to include all three issues, but don’t tip your hand ot the larger pay for play stuff.
OT: Any posts coming about this Madoff guy? His gust of public contrition has the whiff of a fake suicide note, and the story that shields his children from implication in the story is fishy, too.
And Willie Brown has never, ever pulled any stunts. /s
He’s full of it, all right.
Roads to Iraq posted this little vignette…
Bwhahaha…!
Have anything to do with the Tony Rezko sentencing hearing rescheduled from before the election to December 16th?
Not everyone who connects the dots is a “wingnut”. Some of us want to wait and hear the whole story before we take a position.
“Rezko was a major political fundraiser who bankrolled campaigns of both Gov. Rod Blagojevich and Sen. Barack Obama. But he did not supply any money to Obama’s current campaign and the Democratic candidate for president has not been accused of any wrongdoing.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…..32924.html">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…..32924.html
Also there were campaign donations that were returned when the Rezko story first broke.
Slick Willie earned his name.
I forget – did he study under Unruh?
No word in the Obama statement about his people reporting their contacts before the scandal broke. I don’t believe they did. I believe they passively refused a bribe and moved on with no sense of duty. Why is that angle not considered important?
I never thought I would see the phrase “stunt ravioli” in print.
Jay Carney leaving Time to become Biden’s communications director….
Wow Ew you sure “bleeping” cut loose. A conversation between Rahm Emmanuel and Blago would have George Carlin celebrating. That conversation would have to be aired after 10 p.m. according to the Supreme Court
Appropriately, given what Sen.Obama said about Rahm when he was roasted for a charity dinner organized by the Axelrods to fight epilepsy.
“more or less, Rahm is missing his middle finger due to an accidental encounter with a deli slicing machine. It rendered him mute.”
It’s on youtube.
I watched that live. When Obama came out with that “rendered him mute” line I thought I would have a cow.
Rahm Emmanuel was sure a gracious sport that evening.
But from what I have read about Emmanuel it sounds like the hoodlum techniques that Blago used are not that far from the way Rahm has raised money. I bet Emmanuel has cut some shady deals in the past
IIRC, it was the Axelrods who were raising the money for their epilepsy foundation and do so because one of their children has a very serious case of the disease. Rahm was honored for helping them. Can’t speak for Rahm’s strongarming on behalf of charity. Can’t see where it would benefit him, as opposed to raising money for campaigns.
heard Hillary was pretty funny too.
Hillary, Rahm, Obama I forget the Republican Rep who was there he was funny also. William Safire was there and he and Hillary both spared over past comments that Safire had made about Hillary. Safire actually seems like quite the ass.
Rahm’s “bleeping” hardball tactics with fund raising and getting support are well known…it sounds as if he had ever been bugged…Rahm might find himself in a court room in regard to methods used
I know part of Fitzgerald’s pattern is to ask folks to be quiet until he’s worked out the case. I admire the professionalism of that, as well as the tactical soundness.
But it does make me wonder what there is in the Obama camp’s contacts with Blagojevich that Fitz wants to keep quiet (for a week).
My first assumption is that nothing incriminates Obama’s people (otherwise they would be pulling a “we can’t talk about an ongoing investigation” shtick). If that’s the case, then there must be evidence of wrongdoing on the Governor’s part that directly involve the president-elect’s team…deals asked for, demands made, maybe even veiled threats.
Unlike SaltinWound at 54, I don’t think it’s all that terrible if Obama’s side refused Blagovich’s advances yet failed to report them (although it WOULD be cool if they did).
FWIW, that is exactly the currently operative schtick.
A cursory Googling of ”chris bury” abc plame cheney indicates that you are correct, Sparkles.
Bill Bennett has a droll remark on December 16 in NYT, observing that in State it is much more commonplace to arrange quid pro quo appointments. At a time when I was considering such-a-career, a family member of someone in the corps in Scandinavia explained some of those delicacies, corroborating Bennett’s factuality. With respect to WBofCA, he is a person who has done a lot of good for the commoners, though it is true he was depicted as a dealmaker in the late years in his public career. In my brief encounter with some of his associates I found them meticulously observant of the kinds of boundaries politicians who have influence always are interpreting when approached by spokespersons of regulated industries. There is a lot more there than topicality for the thread; as I recall, the strongest record was very long ago rather than material from the late 80s and afterward. Val’s companion might have some sagacious insights on the matter too; the acquaintance with Scandinavian diplomat background mentioned to me that the farthest flung outposts are the rewards to persons who enter the service merely with outstanding academic credentials. It takes more than excellence to serve in more visible embassies. I wondered in retrospect if Fitzgerald’s launch may have an impact on some future issue of quorum or supermajority in the US Senate, should there be protracted delay in of the IL replacement candidate.