Shelby Cleared in Ethics Probe
Murray Waas reports tonight that Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, former top Republican on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, has been cleared in an ethics probe. The probe began in 2004 on a referral from the Justice Department, after it conducted its own investigation and declined to charge Shelby with a crime.
The Senate Ethics Committee inquiry commenced as a result of a referral from the Department of Justice to the committee on July 20, 2004, in which the department said that there existed what sources described as "credible and specific information" that Shelby might have leaked classified information to the press, and then possibly made false statements to federal investigators to conceal what he had done.
What had attracted the interest of the FBI were news reports in 2002 revealing that on the eve of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the National Security Agency had intercepted two Arabic-language messages suggesting that such attacks might soon commence.
Republicans will breathe a sigh of relief on learning Shelby was cleared. As Waas says, had the result been different and following so closely on the heels of the Valerie Plame leaks, there likley would have been significant political repurcussions.
Update: Digby had much harsher words for Shelby here.
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