HAVING OUR CAKE AND BEATING THEM TOO:

Media Groups Back Reporters In Court Filing: Judges Urged to Determine if Crime Occurred in Leak Case (Dan Eggen, March 24, 2005, Washington Post)

A federal court should first determine whether a crime has been committed in the disclosure of an undercover CIA operative's name before prosecutors are allowed to continue seeking testimony from journalists about their confidential sources, the nation's largest news organizations and journalism groups asserted in a court filing yesterday.

The 40-page brief, filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, argues that there is "ample evidence . . . to doubt that a crime has been committed" in the case, which centers on the question of whether Bush administration officials knowingly revealed the identity of undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame in the summer of 2003.

So after whipping up a pointless hysteria about this non-story they have to go into court to try and wiggle off the petard--and people wonder why we believe in Providence?

Posted by Orrin Judd at March 25, 2005 6:24 PM