Since Daniel McCarthy is accusing me of supporting perjury, I think I need to further explain my position. Had Patrick Fitzgerald had an ounce of integrity, he would have closed shop long before he called Scooter Libby before a grand jury. It was clear to prosecutors from almost the beginning that the so-called Agee law was not broken in “Plamegate.” However, he persisted in what can only be called a fishing expedition.

When Libby was called before the grand jury, Fitzgerald was not investigating a crime. Thus, if we are to adhere to any libertarian notions of law, what Fitzgerald did was a criminal act. Prosecutors are not supposed to go on fishing expeditions in hopes of finding crimes. Instead, where rule of law prevails, they are part of an investigating team that looks attempts to find out who violated the law, not if a law was violated. That was one reason that the entire special prosecutor law was so abominable. In case after case, taxpayers funded a prosecutor going on a fishing trip to see if he could conjure a crime out of someone’s actions.

Thus, the purpose of Fitzgerald’s actions was to see if he could find a way to get someone to slip up so he could get an indictment for perjury or “making false statements.” Now, Mr. McCarthy believes that since Mr. Libby told “porkers” to the grand jury (Gee, whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty?), then it was OK to indict him.

Here is the crux of the matter. Mr. McCarthy has declared that somehone it is OK for prosecutors to go on fishing expeditions and use the grand jury process to trick people into doing something for which there can be an indictment. The use of grand juries and other “investigative” tools for the purpose of “fishing expeditions” should be anathema to libertarians and people who believe in rule of law. Since no crime was committed (the so-called Plame outing), then there was no reason for a grand jury, which means that this was an illegal grand jury.

Mr. McCarthy, in effect, is saying that prosecutors should be able to have run of the house, go on fishing expeditions, and use the grand jury process for whatever purposes they want. Furthermore, he is saying that even though the process might be illegitimate, it is OK for prosecutors to indict people if they don’t like the answers they give.

Look, I have no use for Scooter Libby, but I also spend time at the federal prison, and I see people who are separated from their families, and people who are incarcerated because federal prosecutors lied or induced witnesses to lie, or generally broke the law in some other fashion. Libby is part of an administration I detest, but I still believe that the law should protect the sinners as well as the saints.