When I wrote earlier criticisms of Patrick Fitzgerald and the Valerie Plame “outing” case, with the subsequent indictment of Scooter Libby, I received a number of critical emails, most of the “anything that hurts the Bush Administration is good” variety. As I have argued, whenever federal prosecutors are permitted to run wild — no matter who the target may be — our liberties (and the rule of law) are destroyed in ways that even a rogue administration like the current regime in Washington cannot accomplish.

The latest comes from Byron York (yes, let’s hear it, boo, hiss) who is covering the latest Libby hearings in court:

“CIA leak prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald argued . . . that as far as the perjury charges against former Cheney chief of staff Lewis Libby are concerned, it does not matter whether or not Valerie Wilson was a covert CIA agent. . . . ‘We’re trying a perjury case’, Fitzgerald told Judge Reggie Walton. Even if Plame had never worked for the CIA at all, Fitzgerald continued–even if she had been simply mistaken for a CIA agent–the charges against Libby would still stand. In addition, Fitzgerald said, he does not intend to offer ‘any proof of actual damage’ caused by the disclosure of Wilson’s identity.”

I think we need to take note of what Fitzgerald has admitted. It almost is certain that prosecutors knew that no law had been broken in the original Robert Novak column, yet they persisted in their investigation, anyway, in hopes of being able to land an indictment, any indictment. To put it another way, this investigation — which still is ongoing — was and is a major fraud, and, in my opinion, is far more criminal than anything Scooter Libby or Karl Rove could have done in the Plame case.In their emails, people asked, “Does perjury not bother you?” My answer is always the same: “Yes, perjury does bother me — if, in fact, Libby actually committed that crime — but much of the perjury that occurs in federal courts originates from the prosecution.” Time after time, prosecutors suborn perjury, withhold evidence, or outright lie in court.

As one who has written much about the federal criminal system and who has talked to many people involved in that system, I can say that it is one dishonest and criminal enterprise, and the main source of this institutionalized dishonesty is found with prosecutors and their staffs, with judges following closely behind.

While I took a great deal of abuse because I was critical of Fitzgerald, I think that libertarians, by regarding Fitzgerald as some sort of hero, have sold their souls and have helped to sell our liberties down the river so they could “enjoy” watching someone squirm in the dock. By empowering prosecutors, we have signed our own death warrants.