Cover-up charges reportedly being considered in CIA leak case News
Cover-up charges reportedly being considered in CIA leak case

[JURIST] Charges of making false statements, obstruction of justice, disclosing classified information and conspiracy are being considered by federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald [official profile] against administration officials in the investigation into the leak of a CIA operative's identity, lawyers close to the case said Thursday. The two-year investigation began after the identity of Valerie Plame [JURIST news archive] was revealed days after Plame's husband, Ambassador Joseph Wilson, criticized the administration's pre-Iraq war intelligence. Charges will likely be brought next week, though Fitzgerald's spokesman declined to comment on those reports. Charges could be filed against top Bush political advisor Karl Rove for failing to tell the grand jury during his initial appearances that he discussed Plame with a TIME magazine reporter [JURIST report]. Lewis Libby, chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, also faces possible charges [JURIST report] of making false statements and obstruction of justice. Fitzgerald could also charge administration officials with knowingly revealing Plame's identity, but sources say the other charges are more likely. Reuters has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Thomas Becket, former Chancellor of England, murdered by Henry II's knights

On December 29, 1170, Archbishop Thomas Becket, former Chancellor of England, was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral by knights acting in the name of Henry II.

Becket and Henry had been entangled in a power struggle over, among other things, criminal jurisdiction over clergy. Read a contemporary account of the murder of Thomas Becket.

Texas attains US statehood

On December 29, 1845, Texas became the twenty-eighth state to join the United States of America when US President James K. Polk signed the Ordinance of Annexation. Texas had a complicated path to statehood because it had formerly been part of Mexico and then an independent republic. The US Congress passed the Annexation of the Republic of Texas Joint Resolution on March 1, 1845. Voters in Texas then approved the Ordinance of Annexation in October, before it was approved by the US Congress and signed into law by President Polk on this day in 1845. The US Supreme Court later ruled in Texas v. White that, despite its unique path to statehood, Texas did not have the right to secede from the union.