by TChris

Are judges more likely than they once were to send women to prison?

Women made up 7 percent of inmates in state and federal prisons last year and accounted for nearly one in four arrests, the government reported Sunday. ... In 1995, women made up 6.1 percent of inmates in those facilities.

Overall, the population of our prison nation grew 1.9 percent in 2004, with 2,267,787 individuals behind bars.

by TChris

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist in 2003 (during a CNBC interview):

"I think really for our viewers it should be understood that I put this into a blind trust," Frist replied. "So as far as I know, I own no HCA stock." He added that the trust was "totally blind. I have no control."

The truth:

Two weeks before that interview, M. Kirk Scobey Jr., a Frist trustee, informed the senator in writing that one of his trusts had received HCA stock valued at between $15,000 and $50,000.

by TChris

Who polices the police? At the FBI, the answer is: nobody.

The FBI has conducted clandestine surveillance on some U.S. residents for as long as 18 months at a time without proper paperwork or oversight, according to previously classified documents to be released today.

The FBI has violated "laws and directives governing clandestine surveillance" at least 287 times in the past three years. As domestic spying increases, the lack of effective oversight magnifies the threat to civil liberties.

by TChris

Boston College's Center for Human Rights and International Justice opens next week. It hopes to use an interdisciplinary approach to tackle issues of human rights and social injustice around the world.

by TChris

How to spin an indictment:

With a decision expected this week on possible indictments in the C.I.A. leak case, allies of the White House suggested Sunday that they intended to pursue a strategy of attacking any criminal charges as a disagreement over legal technicalities or the product of an overzealous prosecutor.

Funniest spin: Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison claiming that she hopes "that if there is going to be an indictment that says something happened, that it is an indictment on a crime and not some perjury technicality where they couldn't indict on the crime and so they go to something just to show that their two years of investigation was not a waste of time and taxpayer dollars." Republicans who were so exercised about Bill Clinton's testimony regarding oral pleasure now believe that perjury is just a "technicality"?

I have court this morning. Choose your topic, I'm counting on readers to fill in till noon.

Just to recap, while we're waiting:

• Obstruction of Justice
• Perjury (before grand jury)
• Subornation of Perjury
• False Statement to A Federal Official

The Washington Post reports Monday that Robert Novak cooperated with Fitzgerald's probe in the Valerie Plame leaks case.

A critical early success for Fitzgerald was winning the cooperation of Robert D. Novak, the Chicago Sun-Times columnist who named Plame in a July 2003 story and attributed key information to "two senior administration officials." Legal sources said Novak avoided a fight and quietly helped the special counsel's inquiry, although neither the columnist nor his attorney have said so publicly.

While it's been pretty obvious Novak cooperated, this is the first MSM confirmation of it

Reuters is reporting that Fitzgerald will tell lawyers Monday if their clients are targets and he intends to seek perjury or obstruction charges against them.

Top administration officials are expected to learn from Fitzgerald as early as Monday whether they will face charges as the prosecutor winds up his nearly two-year investigation, the lawyers said. Fitzgerald could convene the grand jury as early as Tuesday to lay out a final summary of the case and ask for approval of possible indictments, legal sources said. The grand jury hearing the CIA leak case normally meets on Wednesdays and is scheduled to expire on Friday unless Fitzgerald extends it.

It sounds like Rove is in negotiations:

Asked whether he was taking part in a final round of discussions with the prosecutor's office, Rove's attorney, Robert Luskin, said: "I'm just not going to comment on any possible interactions with Fitzgerald."

Via Newsweek:

Last week Hannah's lawyer Thomas Green told NEWSWEEK his client "knew nothing" about the leak and is not a target of Fitzgerald's probe. "This is craziness," he said.

Raw Story says differently.

It sure seems someone high-up is cooperating. My money's on Rove. Why else does a lawyer like Luskin (most likely with advice from his law partner who is also a Republican advisor, Ben Ginsberg) send his client into the grand jury for a 4th time where he gives four and one half hours of testimony? Luskin has said all along his client is "cooperating fully" with Fitzgerald's investigation.

More on John Hannah here.

An open thread today. Because everyone needs to take a day to regroup before getting ready for battle. It's going to be a long week. Those of us who are no longer 20 and maintain day jobs, need to pace ourselves.

If you're around, and have something to say, be my guest.

The New York Times Sunday profiles Lewis "Scooter" Libby. While it's intended to be a humanizing piece, and it does accomplish that goal, it's also notable for possible clues as to what Libby is planning.

• Clue One:

Mr. Libby, 55, might face indictment in the next week on charges of misleading investigators in the case or trying to cover up the extent of his involvement, lawyers involved in the case have said.

• Clue Two:

But friends and associates said Mr. Libby is not at heart a political animal. They suggest that whatever legal problems he faces from his role in pushing back at criticism by a former ambassador, Joseph C. Wilson IV, of the administration's use of pre-war intelligence about Iraq's weapons programs, he was acting not as a political hatchet man but in defense of ideas and policies he believed in.