LIBBY CHARGED WITH THROWING SAND IN THE UMP'S EYES

Conservative pundits, as expected, have been screaming about Libby being indicted for the coverup when, they say, he was not charged with any underlying crime. They brush off charges of perjury and obstruction of justice as if they were mere examples of hardball politics. WaPo points out that this is nonsense:

Then and now, the theory has been essentially the same: If people are allowed to lie during the investigation of a crime, the crime cannot be proven. It may go unpunished or an innocent person might be wrongly punished.

That is why perjury has never required proof of an underlying crime. Without access to the truth, there may be no way to show the underlying crime.

Fitzgerald himself has a simple answer:

Mr. Fitzgerald would not say on Friday whether he believed that Mr. Libby had in fact violated either law. He said that question had been impossible to answer, because Mr. Libby's misleading answers to investigators and the grand jury had obscured what actually took place. He likened his problem to that of a baseball umpire who was unable to make a call because of sand thrown in his eyes.

Tags: perjury, Fitzgerald, Libby