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Every time something about Karl Rove slithers forth, I always wait until Lawrence
O'Donnell has his say before I come to any conclusions or start rounding up
a hypothesis. Since Mr. O'Donnell broke the detail about Rove long ago, I have
found his insights and formulations for going forward useful, a distillation of all the minutiae. Today was another one of those times. When I heard about Rove earlier today testifying
for a 5th time to the grand jury, of course, only one thing came to my mind.
He's in real jeopardy, no matter the spin. Having lawyers in my family, as well
as a fascination for the law, I've had many a conversation with different attorneys
on the subject. The bottom line is simple. No one goes back to the grand jury
a fifth time willingly unless he or she is trying to undo what has been mistakenly
or purposely done. Karl's tried to make his prior statements clearer too
many times it seems to me.
So, when I looked at O'Donnell's
post today, I found what he said very interesting. This is the lead off
paragraph: “Karl Rove's return to the grand jury today could
mean the end of the Rove investigation or the beginning of the Rove prosecution.
It depends on who asked Rove to return. If Fitzgerald asked Rove to return to
the grand jury, that means Fitzgerald thinks he doesn't have enough for an indictment.
…”
Depending on why Karl went back to the grand jury could make all the difference.
Well, tonight on Keith's “Countdown,” David Shuster said that Karl
volunteered to go back to testify yet one more time. Let's hope he did it with
feeling.
Now it seems even more appropriate to offer this terrible tease of a “target
letter” tale. (Take the following with a grain of salt.)
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. In a prepared statement Wednesday, Luskin said
Fitzgerald indicated that Rove is not a “target” of the investigation.
A “target” of a grand jury investigation is a person who a prosecutor
has substantial evidence to link to a crime. …
Rove gets a “target letter,” but he's not a “target” of
the investigation, with Mr. Fitzgerald not sure if he will indict. Not exactly
a comforting spot for Karl to be in any way you look at it. He deserves the heat. The hotter the better.
On another note, as an fyi, today's podcast is up and
it's all about Bill, the
Democratic Party's real “average Joe.”
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