Libby’s Crime A Technicality

Jeff Goldstein:

I found it ironic that Libby committed a technical crime under the espionage act with regard to “compromising” Plame (which I noted he violated in letter, but not spirit—as the act itself was enacted to guard against damage to the US and providing aid to the enemy) in order to rebut the lies being proferred by Joe Wilson, which were, in my estimation, intended to hurt the President’s foreign policy and weaken the position of the US with regard to Iraq in particular, and the GWOT more broadly.
That Fitzgerald did not indict under the espionage act may, as McCarthy argues, illustrate both forebearance and common sense—but as I likewise argued in the comments, “I don’t think the intent of the espionage act was to convict people like Libby, which is likely why Fitzgerald didn’t charge him. That, and the “classified” status for a CIA agent is pretty pedestrian stuff.

Read the whole thing.