CIA Leak Inquiry Cost: $2.58 Million

And this is chump change to amount of money that Ken Starr wasted on the Bill Clinton investigation.


WASHINGTON (AP) - The CIA leak probe cost $2.58 million, the Government Accountability Office disclosed Monday, wrapping up an investigation that ensnared Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff for perjury, obstruction and lying to the FBI.

The office of Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald spent the money over a 45-month span that saw the indictment, trial and conviction of I. Lewis ``Scooter'' Libby.

The investigation also touched on other officials in the State Department and the White House, including presidential political adviser Karl Rove, who leaked the CIA identity of Valerie Plame.

``This matter is now concluded for all practical purposes,'' reported the GAO, the investigative arm of Congress. The office of special counsel will continue to incur small expenses for limited purposes, such as responding to congressional requests for information.

The spending total consists of figures from eight reports issued by the GAO since early 2004, with the latest issued Monday. It showed $187,420 in expenditures for the six months ending last Sept. 30.

At the height of Fitzgerald's work, the office spent $770,838 for the six months ending March 31, 2007, the month a jury convicted Cheney's former chief of staff.

More on the story.

On a side note: What did Fitzgerald get as a salary or compensation [excluding his paycheck as U.S. Attorney] for his job as Special Prosecutor in the CIA Leak probe?: Zip, nada, zero! That is what he said at the House Judiciary Committee hearing a couple of weeks ago.