There is a new development in the Memogate case. To refresh your memory, it involves two Republican staff aides on the Senate Judiciary Committee who are accused of spying on their Democratic counterparts, stealing information regarding the judicial nomination process and leaking the stolen information to conservative groups and media outlets. The Senate sergeant-at-arms has already concluded that the aides' behavior may have been illegal. Memogate is now being investigated as a criminal case, and a leading federal prosecutor in Manhattan is heading the probe.
Sen. Chuck Schumer wants Attorney General John Ashcroft to recuse himself entirely from oversight of Memogate, as he did in the criminal investigation into who in the administration leaked the identity of Valerie Plame. (What is going on with that case, anyway? Inquiring minds, starved for information, definitely want to know.)
It's also unclear whether Memogate prosecutor David Kelley will have as much power and independence as U.S. attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, who's heading the Plame probe.
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