Talk to prosecutors around the country and you’ll often hear them say Chicago’s U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald is top notch, the gold standard. But Fitzpatrick is obviously worried about protecting that reputation and is going after a book he feels casts him in false light. It’s an interesting story.
By Michael Isikoff
NEWSWEEK
Patrick Fitzgerald may be the most feared prosecutor in the country, but even as he’s racked up headlines for big-name convictions (Scooter Libby) and indictments (Rod Blagojevich), the hard-charging U.S. attorney from Chicago has been waging a private crusade: trying to kill a book he believes maligns his reputation.
In the past year and a half, Fitzgerald has written four letters to HarperCollins-owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.-demanding it “cease publication” and “withdraw” copies of Triple Cross, a 2006 book by ex-TV newsman Peter Lance that criticizes Fitzgerald’s handling of terror cases in New York in the 1990s.
Fitzgerald raised the temperature even more last week, aiming to halt a paperback version. “To put it plain and simple,” he wrote in a June 2 letter obtained by NEWSWEEK, “if in fact you publish the book this month and it defames me or casts me in a false light, HarperCollins will be sued.”
