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SEIFFE:  Getting Even

Thursday, September 7, 2006

By Ralf Seiffe

Over the last decade, the chattering class told us the Starr investigation and its later incarnation was a colossal waste of money and was, after all, just about sex.  To me, the actual controversy wasn’t about the blue dress but about a serial predator who, after signing legislation to protect women from just such characters, lied to escape the consequences of that law.  A colossal waste? The result was impeachment, disbarment and fines for a former president.  

Now, we have another giant investigation but this time the same chattering class wants to sweep it out of the public’s conscience.  Yet again, the Washington elite have attached their fate to an obvious liar, this one not nearly as unusually skilled as the former President.  The ooze covering Joe Wilson should spread--but probably won’t--as the D.C. press spikes the story. 

The real victim of this story is Scooter Libby.  Subjected to the grand jury and indicted when the prosecutor knew that he wasn’t the guilty party greatly diminishes one’s respect for the legal process. One would think justice would demand he be cleared because his testimony was not material as sustaining a perjury rap requires.  Nevertheless, Mr. Libby is still under indictment.  Who knows how this will turn out or how much it will cost him.  One thing is certain, however, Libby won’t return to his position working for the Vice President anytime soon.  As Ray Donovan, a Reagan official, once famously asked after tangling with another federal prosecutor, “How do I get my reputation back?”  

Here’s a thought.  The federal government is often the target of chiselers and thimble-riggers.  To combat these crooks, the feds created the “False Claims Act” (31 USC 3729) which make it a crime to fraudulently bill the federal government.  This could include billing for work not done, inflation of costs billed or other artifices designed to get something the crook is not entitled.  This statute is the “whistleblowers” law that is designed to provide a reason for folks familiar with schemes designed to cheat the government to rat out the crooks out.  If the government successfully recovers, the whistleblowers can get substantial rewards. 

What happens when someone makes a false report or does a job they know is unnecessary and then asks the federal government to be paid for it?  Or, when a contractor works for his own benefit under the cover of a government-paid undertaking? That seems to be the Joe Wilson story.  He went overseas through the meddling of his wife and came home with a report which was less of the investigation the government ordered than a put-up job designed to advance the cause of Joe Wilson.  When he asked for salary or expenses did Wilson make a false claim?  Don’t we have an expectation of Wilson ’s honest services? 

What about a prosecutor who convenes a grand jury, telling the Justice Department that he’s attempting to detect the identity of a leaker when he knows that someone else has already admitted to being the leaker?  As the chatters endlessly told us during Whitewater, these exercises are very expensive and if there is no genuine controversy, what’s the point of spending the government’s money?  It certainly is not for the government’s benefit.  This situation would be bad had the jury issued no indictments and simply gone out of business.  What makes it infinitely worse is that the prosecutor knew that Valerie Plame’s “outing” did not and could not fit the definition of the crime he was supposedly investigating.  Tripping up and indicting Libby, who should never have been put in jeopardy, simply aggravates the circumstances.  As a layman, this all seems pretty sleazy and dishonest and makes me wonder about the verity of the same prosecutor’s indictments here in Chicago .   

So, Scooter, why not turn in your tormentors under the False Claims statutes?  If successful, the government stands to recover three times the damages and there’s a big reward for you, as the whistleblower.  Even more rewarding might be the delicious irony of Joe Wilson sitting in front of the grand jury, trying to explain his behavior in Niger.  Given the Department of Justice’s zero tolerance for perjury--and the findings of the 9/11 Commission--escaping his own perjury indictment might be a real accomplishment for the former diplomat. 

The False Claims law has certain thresholds including a requirement that the information not be generally known.  Given the prosecutor’s stony silence--and legal requirement--to keep grand jury testimony secret, it seems that what went on in the courtroom is not generally known.  Mr. Libby does know what happened and that gives him the standing to bring this to the attention of other government prosecutors.   New prosecutors could eventually subpoena the grand jury’s records to see if the prosecutor actually presented evidence of the actual leaker. 

This is, of course, a political fantasy.  Longing for the mainstream media to bring the whole story to their pages is as likely as reading an inventory of Sandy Berger’s pants or ABC standing up to Madame Albright.  That’s too bad because a good reporter with the chutzpah of a Woodward or Bernstein might find an interesting set of connections that extend from the tarnished Mr. and Mrs. Wilson to some still-shiny Democrats who promoted this notorious yarn.

©2006 Ralf Seiffe

Ralf Seiffe advises business start-ups and product launches from Chicago, Illinois and is a political analyst and columnist for the Illinois Leader and Illinois Review.

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