Sorry for the short diary but I didn’t see this anywhere else here. Former FBI director James Comey just hired Patrick Fitzgerald as one of his lawyers! Oh this is sweet!
As most here probably know, Fitzgerald is a highly respected former US Attorney who was the lead investigator into the Valerie Plame outing during the Bush administration. His investigation was repeatedly thwarted by top administration officials, and because of this it resulted only in the conviction of Scooter Libby, VP Dick Cheney’s top aide, whom Trump just recently pardoned, for lying to the FBI.
What’s less widely known is that Comey, who was deputy AG under then-AG John Ashcroft, was the one who appointed Fitzgerald to be the special counsel in this investigation. And who was the FBI director at the time? None other than Robert Mueller! Oh, this is just too rich for words!
TPM just put it up:
EXCLUSIVE: Comey Has Brought On Former U.S. Attorney Pat Fitzgerald As One Of His Lawyers
By Cameron Joseph | April 24, 2018 4:46 pm
Fired FBI Director James Comey has retained former U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald as one of his personal attorneys, bringing in a heavy-hitting former prosecutor, close friend and longtime colleague to help him navigate his dramatic role as a potential witness in the investigation of President Trump’s campaign and potential obstruction of justice.
...
The hiring adds an additional twist to President Trump’s recent decision to pardon Scooter Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff, for his role in the Valerie Plame affair.
Comey, then the deputy attorney general, was the man who authorized the special counsel’s investigation into “the alleged unauthorized disclosure of a CIA employee’s identity” in late 2003, the case that eventually led to Libby’s conviction for perjury and obstruction of justice. His choice for special counsel, the prosecutor who got the guilty verdict on Libby, was none other than Fitzgerald.
Comey and Fitzgerald have been close friends for more than three decades, going back to their time working together in the Southern District of New York’s U.S. Attorney’s Office starting in the late 1980s, and knew each other even before then. Fitzgerald is the godfather of one of Comey’s children. In a joint interview in 2008 about their tight bond, Comey described Fitzgerald as a “close friend” as they reminisced about the glory days working their first cases together.
Heh, just as Trump’s pardoning of Libby was clearly meant to send a message to anyone who was thinking of ratting him out to Bob Mueller, to avoid prison time, that they need not do so because he’ll pardon them—which in lawyerspeak means obstruction of justice, a serious felony—this is clearly meant to send a counter-message to Trump that he’s not messing around and it’s payback time—for Fitzgerald as well as for Comey and Mueller, and, really, the entire FBI—and every decent person in the country.
Update: Per mjd in florida and others (h/t!), last night TPM posted an update to their original article on this story, in which they stated that Comey actually retained Fitzgerald in May 2017, shortly after Trump fired him:
Patrick Fitzgerald and James Comey have separately confirmed this evening our story that Fitzgerald is a member of Comey’s personal legal team. Fitzgerald has been representing Comey since President Trump fired Comey as FBI director in May 2017, we have now learned.
However, it’s not clear (to me at least) whether this was disclosed or known at the time, or has just now been disclosed or otherwise ascertained.