by TChris

The vote to ratify Iraq's draft constitution will be audited in light of reports of fraud and suspicious numbers of ballots cast.

Iraq's electoral commission said Monday it intended to audit "unusually high" numbers in results coming from most provinces in the country's landmark referendum on the draft constitution.

...

The electoral commission's statement came as Sunni Arab lawmaker Meshaan al-Jubouri claimed fraud had occurred in Saturday's election -- including instances of voting in hotly contested regions by pro-constitution Shiites from other areas -- repeating earlier comments made by other Sunni officials over the weekend.

Yes, Bloomberg News reported last night that Cheney was a focus of Fitzgerald's probe. I did not see any new information there that Raw Story or I hadn't reported on before, so I wrote about a different section of the article which mentioned that Joseph Wilson is considering suing Bush, Cheney, et. al.

Bloomberg doesn't say Fitzgerald has uncovered evidence of Cheney wrong-doing, only that he is looking at it. Bloomberg also acknowledges there have been no leaks from Fitzgerald's team, so the information has to be coming from lawyers for other subjects of the investigation, some of whom, it appears, are in legal jeopardy. It may just be spin and an attempt to deflect attention from their clients. For example, Miller says she exonerated Cheney in her appearance before the grand jury.

But, there's plenty of information out there, for those willing to connect the dots. Whether it's enough to get Cheney is open to interpretation. You can find most of the details in these two posts.

• Cheney, Wilson and the White House, Part One

• Fitzgerald Widening His Probe (follow the embedded links for source material.)

Beginning Wednesday, Alaskans will be able to carry a firearm in their vehicle and no longer need a permit to carry a concealed weapon.

A new state anti-gun control law that goes into effect will essentially bar municipalities from passing gun laws that are more restrictive than state law. The National Rifle Association, which helped Republican state Rep. Mike Chenault write the legislation, says except for the concealed weapon permit requirements, most Alaska city and state gun laws are the same.

by TChris

According to Jerry Kilgore, Republican candidate for governor of Virginia, criminal defense attorneys are unfit to hold a political office, at least if they defend individuals who face the death penalty.

Republican nominee Jerry Kilgore sparked a firestorm with television ads that feature relatives of murder victims criticizing [Tim] Kaine for representing a death row inmate and for once supporting a moratorium on executions in the state. ... But even before the latest ads hit the airwaves, Kilgore had persistently argued that Kaine's legal representation of three death row inmates and his public statements against capital punishment make him unfit to serve as governor.

Assuring that the government doesn't execute an innocent accused hardly seems the kind of radical occupation that should disqualify someone from holding public office. Do Republicans seriously believe that prosecutors the only players in the criminal justice system who are sufficiently "trustworthy" to hold an elective office?

Raw Story confirms that Judith Miller's attorney Robert Bennett had a hand in writing her Sunday article in the Times explaining her role in PlameGate.

No lawyer would let a client write a tell-all about a recent appearance before the grand jury in a case in which she was a principal player and had been held in contempt without reviewing it first and probably making some changes. As I wrote on Saturday about the article:

For anyone who still thinks [Miller] is going to be indicted, please understand that her lawyers would have carefully vetted this article before they allowed her to send it in to the Times. If Miller was in jeopardy from Fitzgerald, there would have been no article.

The FBI released its report on annual crime statistics today. While the MSM is touting the number of murders and other violent crimes, there's another story.

The Marijuana Policy Project, having reviewed the report, writes (received by e-mail):

Marijuana arrests set a new record in 2004, totaling 771,605. Eighty-nine percent of these arrests were for marijuana possession, not sale or manufacture. In contrast, arrests for all violent crimes combined totalled 590,258—a decline from 2003.

TChris wrote last week about the case of a Missouri inmate who had been denied her right to an abortion while incarcerated until a federal court ruled in her behalf. Days later, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, acting alone, issued a stay of the order.

Today, the Supreme Court, without comment, lifted the stay. The state had relied on a a law that banned taxpayer funds from being used obtain an abortion.

Chief Justice Roberts participated in the decision. Scotus Blog reports:

How effective have the railings of right-wing bloggers been against Harriet Miers? According to Business Week, hardly at all.

Big-name Right-wing bloggers and pundits are livid about Bush's latest Supreme Court pick. So why do polls find only 9% of the GOP faithful oppose her?

The White House is changing strategies over Miers' nomination and finally putting a support team in place. Miers' religion is off the table in the new playbook:

Bloomberg News reports that Joseph Wilson may sue Bush, Cheney and others in the Administration:

In an interview yesterday, Wilson said that once the criminal questions are settled, he and his wife may file a civil lawsuit against Bush, Cheney and others seeking damages for the alleged harm done to Plame's career.

If they do so, the current state of the law makes it likely that the suit will be allowed to proceed -- and Bush and Cheney will face questioning under oath -- while they are in office. The reason for that is a unanimous 1997 U.S. Supreme Court decision ruling that Paula Jones' sexual harassment suit against then-President Bill Clinton could go forward immediately, a decision that was hailed by conservatives at the time.

What's good for the goose....

In a telephone interview with the Wall Street Journal (free link), Judith Miller Sunday explained how she came to look for and find her notes of her earlier converstion with Scooter Libby, the ones that led to her second grand jury testimony.

In a brief telephone interview Sunday, Ms. Miller said she discovered the June 2003 notes in her office after being prompted to seek out answers to another question Mr. Fitzgerald had asked her. "There was an open question about something, and I said I would go back and look and see if there was anything in my notes that would address that question," she said Sunday.

I have gotten a few e-mails asking how Judith Miller can write an article about what she was asked during her grand jury appearances. The answer is that federal grand jury secrecy laws don't apply to witnesses before the grand jury or their lawyers, only to government prosecutors, agents, investigators and the like. Remember, Matthew Cooper did the same thing after his appearance.

Here is one of my prior explanations of the rule, which is Rule 6(e) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure.

From that post (in the context of how to tell which side is leaking):

by Last Night in Little Rock

The wife of prominent Oakland criminal defense attorney and TV legal commentator Daniel Horowitz was found murdered in their home yesterday evening. Horowitz was four days into the murder trial of Susan Polk at the time of the murder. (The San Francisco Examiner and the Oakland Tribune had no stories about the murder today. The Contra Costa Times had this article. For a summary of the "sensational" Polk trial to date, go the Tribune's website and enter "Horowitz" or "Susan Polk" in the archives search.) Horowitz is a frequent guest on CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News, and he was regularly seen during the Peterson trial.