Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Rove Indictment Imminent?

For the fifth time, Karl Rove has been summoned by Patrick Fitzgerald to testify before the grand jury in the Plame CIA leak case. The CNN spin is that all will be resolved and Rove cleared of any wrongdoing after today's testimony.

A more reliable report comes from Jason Leopold:

Target Letter Drives Rove Back to Grand Jury
By Jason Leopold
"Karl Rove's appearance before a grand jury in the CIA leak case Wednesday comes on the heels of a 'target letter' sent to his attorney recently by Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, signaling that the Deputy White House Chief of Staff may face imminent indictment, sources that are knowledgeable about the probe said Wednesday.

It's unclear when Fitzgerald sent the target letter to Rove's attorney, Robert Luskin. Sources close to the two-year-old leak investigation said when Rove's attorney received the letter Rove volunteered to appear before the grand jury for an unprecedented fifth time to explain why he did not previously disclose conversations he had with the media about covert CIA operative Valerie Plame and her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who criticized the Bush administration's use of pre-war Iraq intelligence.

A federal grand jury target letter is sent to a person in a criminal investigation who is likely to be indicted. A 'target' of a grand jury investigation is a person who a prosecutor has substantial evidence to link to a crime.

Last week, Rove was stripped of some of his policy duties in a White House shakeup orchestrated by incoming Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten. The White House insisted that Rove was not demoted, but insiders said the executive branch is bracing for a possible indictment against Rove.

Luskin was accompanying Rove to US District Court in Washington, DC, Wednesday morning and unavailable for comment. Rove was told by Fitzgerald's staff that his testimony could last for as long as three hours.

In an interview last week, Luskin confirmed that Rove was a 'subject' of Fitzgerald's probe. In a previous interview, Luskin asserted that Rove would not be indicted by Fitzgerald, but he was unwilling to make that same prediction again during an interview last week.

'Mr. Fitzgerald hasn't made any decision on the charges and I can't speculate what the outcome will be,' Luskin said in an interview last week. 'Mr. Rove has cooperated completely with the investigation.'
Read more.

Related Articles:

4 comments:

Cal Skinner said...

Has he lost weight?

The Unknown Candidate said...

LOL. Hard to say, since he's keeping a rather low profile these days.

Ellie said...

Even as much as we want a rove indictment, I seriously doubt that it will ever come to pass. These people have so much power and so much money that if it comes down to it they'll just pay someone off. Hopefully that's not the case and he'll be indicted, but i doubt it.

The Unknown Candidate said...

I know how you feel, Ellie. But I'm holding out hope that Fitz will get to the bottom of the CIA leak if it's at all possible to do so. He has an impeccable reputation for having the highest integrity and has succeeded in indicting and convicting Ryan in Illinois--at the same time he has been running the CIA Leak investigation. He is not a partisan and I don't believe he can be bought. Will witnesses lie? Probably. The question is, will they get tripped up in their lies by other witnesses? It's tough to have the patience for this thing to play out. I only hope Fitz can get at the truth and indictments will follow.