According to RAW STORY:
“At least one” doesn’t sound all that encouraging. But if you read this article carefully there is some very interesting news. It all boils down to what happened Tuesday night:
Fitzgerald intended to announce that he had secured indictments against I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, and Karl Rove, President Bush’s deputy chief of staff, Wednesday afternoon as well as two people who work outside of the administration, those close to the case said.
But his office was contacted late Tuesday by attorneys representing figures outside the White House, lawyers said, who expressed interest in entering into plea talks with the prosecutor. Several have agreed to enter into last-minute plea negotiations with Fitzgerald in exchange for providing testimony that could result in criminal charges being brought against additional officials inside the White House, they added.
Apparently, Rove was offered a plea deal as well, and like a loyal soldier, he turned it down. After all, if Rove cops a plea, that means he has to testify against a bigger fish. And the only bigger fish are…
“Mr. Fitzgerald is extremely thorough,” the lawyer remarked. “He had advised Judge [Thomas F.] Hogan more than two weeks ago that there was a strong possibility that some defendants may be inclined to cooperate at the last minute.”
It looks like several (former?) members of the White House staff were playing a game of chicken with Fitzgerald. When he announced that Wednesday was zero hour, some of these staffers blinked.
This cannot be good news for Darth Cheney.
That’s how I read it. With the massive caveat that this type of reporting is similar to Britney gossip.
He lied, it’s obvious. He won’t be given the benefit of the doubt by Fitzegerald. The initial indictments are finished and we’ll find out tomorrow, although most of the information will leak out spastically through the rest of today.
My personal goal is for at least one indictment still to focus on the initial leak and its ramifications for national security. I explained to my son last night why the U.S. had to have spies, and why it’s a big deal that we keep our spies secret, and why it’s a bigger deal when someone tattles on them. He had a very hard time processing it all, not because the details were confusing, but because he could not believe someone who worked for the President, even a bad President, could do that to his own country.
I think a Rove plea bargain could turn out to be highly advantageous if it leads upstairs. But didn’t we have a similar rumor about rejected plea bargains by Luskin a week ago? Maybe they weren’t crapping themselves with enough gusto yet.
I made these comments when BooMan had only this link as his placeholder story. The Raw Story article is much clearer, so please disregard my ramblings.
sorry about that, I had the wrong link cached. Fixed now.
That’s funny. I wanted to read and quickly comment, but I read the thing and scratched my head? Couldn’t figure out what all of you knew without me.
Booman, all I can say is, after reading this for the second time today, is that who the hell knows what is goin on inside the WH!! It does appear that something is going on, but what is the question. I seriously feel that there is going to be an extention but for not quite the the same reasons mentioned here. I think Fitz is going to get to the bottm of this lead up to the war and all that was involved, for one thing leads to another..and another…and another…that is the real issue here. The whole issue is, why did they lie us into a way in the frist damn place. This, to me, has always been the issue. So I think it will be about everything and everybody in this whole defacating mess.
whoops way=into a (war) in the frist damn place
.
A Day Later … :: as posted earlier yesterday in diary.
MIKE ALLEN: “A Likely Scenario For What Happened Today Is Patrick Fitzgerald Got Some Indictments”
Very possible. What I’m told is typically, in a case like this, he could get the indictments and now he can go to the targets and say, you can plead to these or I’ll go back Friday and get more. You have 12 to 24 hours to think about it.
From the Los Angeles Times: “One grand juror was overheard telling another juror, ‘See you Friday,’ suggesting the possibility that the grand jury would continue to meet up to the last minute.”
The Washington Post‘s Jim VandeHei, who has some of the best sources in Washington, hinted on Hardball that Fitzgerald’s meeting with Hogan today did not involve extending the grand jury.
And Time‘s Mike Allen, who also has some of the best sources in Washington, strongly hinted that WH folks had been indicted, and that we’d learn about them soon.
According to my sources, the letters to “indictment targets” were received yesterday. According to my legal sources, the standard practice would be for the grand jury to send indictment requests via the judge — and these would be “filed” today. I have no idea how transparent that process is — but I was told that the indictments are sealed.
Lawrence Wilkerson’s talk at New America will be used, clips anyway, on Jon Stewart’s “The Daily Show”on Comedy Central.
— Steve Clemons
Cheney aide David Wurmser passed Plame’s name to Libby – Hadley
(RAW STORY) Oct. 26 — Those close to the investigation say that Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has been told that David Wurmser, then a Middle East adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney on loan from the office of then-Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs John Bolton, met with Cheney and his chief of staff I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby in June 2003 and told Libby that Plame set up the Wilson trip. He asserted that it was a boondoggle, the sources said.
My Analysis …
Tue Oct 25th, 2005 at 08:02:40 PM PST
“Treason doth never prosper: what’s the reason?
For if it prosper, none dare call it treason.”
▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
AHA!
This confirms that Richard Sale, the longtime intelligence reporter, was correct here yesterday:
Update/Leak indictments
— and —
Aides To Be Indicted, Probe to Continue
Now let’s see if his Niger forgeries assessments yesterday play out.
about the secret meetings and the Italians tattling over the Niger mess. Other than here that was the very first time I had ever heard anything about it, but it was beginning to be talked about last night!
For the record, this was my speculation, and my Fitzsmas wish list, even before Larry reported it. 🙂
Boston Joe’s Fitzsmas Wish List.
me too. Now to the other article which was posted later. I really do not have a clue except the issues I have already mentioned. I want to see the whole damn mess of them go down and big time! I think Bob Novak might have an answer to this one…;o), involving rove…I think bobby boy needs a little jail time of his own, dont ya all??!! after all it was he that did the gasty deed of reporting this whole mess and got it started. I see him the worst of the worst! He out and outright committed treason in my book! He knew better than to write that article in the first place.
Why doesn’t he just do something. I told him that it was shared on here yesterday that Fitz has gone to the very last day before, and the man seems to waste no resource at his disposal to get to the very bottom of the very bottom. Heard last night that he has busted a lot of organized crime and he knows how to dig the “O” out of Omerta. Poor Bush and his fucking loyalty oaths.
that the thought of the WH crew spending an extra night worrying that they will wake up twisting in the wind gives me the happiest little endorphin rush, all warm and fuzzy…is that wrong?
and I’m just as guilty of it as you are. 🙂
when you go after the perjury and all that. He was having a fit that someone could be indicted when the real case about the breaking of the law concerning outing a CIA agent. Said that if proof of that wasn’t found then the investigation should be stopped. Said that Fitz had charges against him for “over investigating and creating reasons to prosecute” and Colmes pointed out that Fitz won the fight over those charges!
“Clinton impeachment”
What’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.
He was convicted of lying to Congress about whether or not he knew Whittaker Chambers and gave him government documents, not for treason. In those days there was a statute of limitations for treasonous acts committed during peacetime, Hiss’s offenses were committed before WWII began.
Maybe Hannity would like to start a movement to have Bush give Hiss a posthumous pardon.
Jeffrey Toobin spoke about these very rumours earlier today. Let me paraphrase: he said that the higher up the food chain you go, the less apt the prosecutor is to even offer a plea bargain. He thought that the bargain Fitz would offer to someone as high up as Rove would be so Draconian that Rove would never go for it.
So if true, if Rove is copping a plea, could it mean that he’s being indicted for more than perjury? Do they actually have something on Cheney? If Libby’s indictment is already a done deal, then who would Rove be turning on?
If the bit about Fitz renting more space in Washington is true, Cheney’d better change all his pacemaker batteries, that’s for sure.
I’m so glad you can keep your pundits straight … they all get mixed up in my head!
anyway, someone last night was talking about what a sharp lawyer Rove has, and that he has connections inside Justice (since he used to be a fed. prosecutor before he became a white collar defense attorney) — and that he is working feverishly to make a deal for Rove.
??
This is the correct analysis.
Rove has already been fingered for confirming for Novak. May have been the architect for the whole thing. So he has LOTS of information on who did what adn Fitz is going to put him through the juicer very carefully. And he may get some useful info out of him. But he won’t finger Bush yet, and Fitz won’t cut a deal for anything less, I hope.
But Rove will roll the dice and won’t give up George until after his sentencing ~ 300 years of so, no parole, and hard time. Then it will dawn on him that Bush and the conservative movement aren’t damn well worth it. Better to squeal once now than every time he takes a shower in the pen.
But we’ll have to be patient.
I so hope this is true but I have decided in order to stay somewhat sane(no wise cracks you guys…lol)i will with hold speculation until the fat lady sings or Fitz is in front of the cameras making the announcement himself. AND I do hope some canaries are singing away to get out of the cage Fitz has built for them.
Rove is screwed.
He can’t give up Bush. Without Bush Rove is nothing.
Rove’s political style (nasty, brutish, and vengeful) makes a lot of enemies on the way up. Somewhere in US there is a group of people whetting their daggers – all the better to plunge them into Rove’s back.
Any of Rove’s lickspittles will turn once Rove can no longer propel their careers.
Bush can’t save Rove and, my guess, won’t even try.
Bye-Bay Rove. It hasn’t been nice knowing you.
“Bye-Bay”????
That’s what I get for typing without my near-seeing glasses on.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051027/pl_nm/bush_leak_dc_28
against Fitz’s door in the dead of the night tonight in the wake of this Nor’easter?
that really gave me the chills. I am sure that if anything happens to Fitz he has an envelope with all the evidence in a lock box with his lawyer.
I don’t care if any of these people go to prison; we must insist, however, that any plea deal include an agreement to leave government forever.
who work outside of the administration who might be indicted?
Any speculations? former officials in Cheney’s office?
Remind me never to play poker (or any other game) against Patrick Fitzgerald.
An indictment of Rove and Libby on charges of perjury and obstruction of Justice is nothing. I agree with the Republicans. It is a trick. The same trick they used on Martha Stewart and it will result in nothing. It is a techncality becuase it isn’t directly related to the orginal charge and doen’st lead to anything.
This has to be about outing Valierie Plame or it is nothing. If after 2 years all Fitzgerald could do was to get these guys on perjury then something is wrong. And he’s not the one whose getting them necessarily it’s the grand jury becuase they witnessed the lies.
If you can’t get the Niger Foregeries by way of Valerie Plame you have nothing. This isn’t about punishing Karl Rove it’s about exposing the truth of this war and hopefully leading to the removal of the troops.
Don’t get excited because they are punishing Karl Rove…that’s short sighted….it’s got to lead to the exposure of lies that led to the war and then removal of the troops from IRaq.
I
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Karl Rove Wednesday at WH
Sources: Prosecutor focusing on Rove
“Treason doth never prosper: what’s the reason?
For if it prosper, none dare call it treason.”
▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY