Ethical Questions
Victoria Toensing, a former Justice Department official, wrote in an editorial to the Wall Street Journal that prosecutors are allowed to "inform the public of the nature and extent" of the charges against the defendant, but cannot " extrajudicial comments that pose a serious and imminent threat of heightening public condemnation of the accused". Toensing contends that prejudicial comments such as " conduct would make Lincoln roll over in his grave" and that Blagojevich's actions represented "a truly new low" clearly violated this legal ethical standard.
Aside from Toensing's comments, Fitzgerald's prosecution against Lewis "Scooter" Libby attracted criticism. On August 28, 2006, Christopher Hitchens asserted that Richard Armitage was the primary source of the Valerie Plame leak and that Fitzgerald knew this at the beginning of his investigation. A month later Armitage claimed that Fitzgerald had instructed him not to go public with this information.
Investor's Business Daily ran an editorial, which stated: "From top to bottom, this has been one of the most disgraceful abuses of prosecutorial power in this country's history... The Plame case proves can bend the truth with the proficiency of the slickest of pols."
Read more about this topic: Patrick Fitzgerald
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