Salon: Could Karl Rove be immunized from criminal prosecution?

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/index.html?blog=/politics/war_room/2005/08/04/rove/index.html

Lt. Col. Oliver North was convicted in 1989 in a felony prosecution for his role in the Iran-Contra affair, but his conviction was ultimately reversed -- not because he wasn't guilty, but because federal appellate judges believed that the jury that heard North's case had been tainted by testimony he had been compelled to give before Congress.

Could it happen again with Karl Rove or any other Bush administration officials implicated in the Valerie Plame case? New Jersey Sen. Frank Lautenberg seems to think so, and he's taking pre-emptive measures to stop it. In a letter obtained by Raw Story, Lautenberg tells the chairmen of the House and Senate intelligence committees that it's right for Congress to investigate the Plame case, but that the committees should act carefully to avoid accidentally -- and it would surely be an accident, right? -- interfering with any criminal prosecutions.

"As you know, Congress has the power to grant immunity to witnesses who appear before its committees," Lautenberg writes. "However we must be mindful of the warning delivered by Independent Counsel Lawrence Walsh at the end of his seven-year investigation into the Iran-Contra affair. His investigation was hampered, and the convictions of Oliver North and John Poindexter overturned on appeal, due to immunity granted by Congress in exchange for testimony before Iran-contra committees. Walsh advised that Congress should think carefully before granting immunity, and be cognizant that 'if it wants to compel testimony by granting immunity, it has to realize that the odds are very strong that it’s going to kill any resulting criminal prosecution.'

"While I applaud your Committee’s efforts to investigate the Plame affair, I urge you to not provide an opportunity for any wrongdoers to escape culpability for criminal actions that may have put our national security at risk."

[kitkat65]

1. Then I hope the innoculation contains thimerosol n/t

[pinotnoir]

2. ...

I hope the rat bastard rots in jail!

[jojo54]

3. WHY????

Why is Salon even asking this question??? KKKarl should be thrown in jail to rot for perjury and treason.

[chaumont58]

4. I'm totally a laymen, but it seems to me that this Congress could...

and just might very well do it. Their only downside would be public opinion and that is not much of a factor with these pukes. Their hardcore followers would cheer such a move. Certain of the beltway whores would tsk-tsk for about a day, and go back to covering missing blond teenagers.
Another way is that chimpie could pardon the whole nine yards. Again, it is public opinion that would be a factor, but repuke talking heads and the whores would bring up Clinton's pardons.

Either move wouldn't surprise me a whole lot. These people have stolen presidential elections. They don't have weak stomaches.

[H5N1]

5. Rove will walk

And a few good Democrats will protest.
And most Democrats will cower.
And Bush will win again.
Business as usual.

[Vickers]

6. Fitzgerald could circumvent this by not ALLOWING any "protected"

testimony.

He's a smart guy, I'm sure he is familiar with how North and Poindexter eluded justice on a technicality.

[flpoljunkie]

7. Warning flags should go up if the Rethugs initiate Plame investigation...

After all, how many investigations of the Bush administration have they undertaken?

One. And Intelligence Chairman Pat Roberts has refused to finish that investigation--namely Phase II-- how intelligence was used in the runup to the war in Iraq--promised in February, 2004.

Interestingly, Senator Diane Feinstein has just recently sent Roberts a letter requesting he finish Phase II. Wonder if she signed John Kerry's letter requesting just that. Only one Committee membe, Jon Corzine, had previously signed the letter--altho nine other Senators have done so.

[wli]

8. Iran-Contra redux? could be