Okay, I’m not a lawyer but I can play one in the blogosphere. So here is my initial speculation:

Federal prosecutors have accepted an offer from presidential adviser Karl Rove to give 11th-hour testimony in the case of a CIA officer’s leaked identity but have warned they cannot guarantee he won’t be indicted. link

“Karl’s consistent position is that he will cooperate any time, any place,” said Rove’s attorney, Robert Luskin. He said the prosecutor in the case has not informed Rove by letter that he is a target and has “affirmed that he has made no charging decision.”
link

Rove has two goals. He obviously wants to avoid prison. But he also wants to avoid being indicted. If he is indicted he will have to resign. That means he cannot cop a plea to a lesser charge and keep his job.

Rove has the right, under Justice Department protocols, to receive a ‘target letter’ if he is asked subpoenaed to testify before a Grand Jury that is considering indicting him. I believe his lawyer waived that right told Rove to testify voluntarily so that he could continue to deny that Rove is at risk.

Basically, Rove must be offering to give so much information that Fitzgerald and the Grand Jury might be inclined to let him off the hook with NO CHARGES filed. But he is doing it without an immunity agreement.

It looks to me like Rove is attempting a hail-mary pass (avoiding indictment, a plea, or even a target letter).

But, if I am right, this has extremely dire consequences for the administration.

The charges must be very serious if Rove is willing to roll over on his superiors. He must be facing more than 18 months in jail for perjury.

Any lawyers out there, please tell me if I am making sense.

Update [2005-10-6 17:13:23 by BooMan]: it appears a target letter is only issued when a subpoena is issued to a target. By volunteering to testify, Rove avoided getting a subpoena which would have had a target letter attached.

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