[Mb-civic] um ... ROVE INDICTED!!!!!!!!

[Mike Blaxill]

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/051306W.shtml

    Karl Rove Indicted on Charges of Perjury,
Lying to Investigators
    By Jason Leopold
    t r u t h o u t | Report

    Saturday 13 May 2006

    Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald spent
more than half a day Friday at the offices of
Patton Boggs, the law firm representing Karl
Rove.

    During the course of that meeting, Fitzgerald
served attorneys for former Deputy White House
Chief of Staff Karl Rove with an indictment
charging the embattled White House official with
perjury and lying to investigators related to his
role in the CIA leak case, and instructed one of
the attorneys to tell Rove that he has 24 hours
to get his affairs in order, high level sources
with direct knowledge of the meeting said
Saturday morning.

    Robert Luskin, Rove's attorney, did not
return a call for comment. Sources said
Fitzgerald was in Washington, DC, Friday and met
with Luskin for about 15 hours to go over the
charges against Rove, which include perjury and
lying to investigators about how and when Rove
discovered that Valerie Plame Wilson was a covert
CIA operative and whether he shared that
information with reporters, sources with direct
knowledge of the meeting said.

    It was still unknown Saturday whether
Fitzgerald charged Rove with a more serious
obstruction of justice charge. Sources close to
the case said Friday that it appeared very likely
that an obstruction charge against Rove would be
included with charges of perjury and lying to
investigators.

    An announcement by Fitzgerald is expected to
come this week, sources close to the case said.
However, the day and time is unknown. Randall
Samborn, a spokesman for the special prosecutor
was unavailable for comment. In the past, Samborn
said he could not comment on the case.

    The grand jury hearing evidence in the Plame
Wilson case met Friday on other matters while
Fitzgerald spent the entire day at Luskin's
office. The meeting was a closely guarded secret
and seems to have taken place without the
knowledge of the media.

    As TruthOut reported Friday evening, Rove
told President Bush and Chief of Staff Joshua
Bolten, as well as a few other high level
administration officials, that he will be
indicted in the CIA leak case and will
immediately resign his White House job when the
special counsel publicly announces the charges
against him, according to sources.

    Details of Rove's discussions with the
president and Bolten have spread through the
corridors of the White House, where low-level
staffers and senior officials were trying to
determine how the indictment would impact an
administration that has been mired in a number of
high-profile political scandals for nearly a
year, said a half-dozen White House aides and two
senior officials who work at the Republican
National Committee.

Speaking on condition of anonymity Friday night,
sources confirmed Rove's indictment was imminent.
These individuals requested anonymity saying they
were not authorized to speak publicly about
Rove's situation. A spokesman in the White House
press office said they would not comment on
"wildly speculative rumors."

    Rove's announcement to President Bush and
Bolten comes more than a month after he alerted
the new chief of staff to a meeting his attorney
had with Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald in
which Fitzgerald told Luskin that his case
against Rove would soon be coming to a close and
that he was leaning toward charging Rove with
perjury, obstruction of justice and lying to
investigators, according to sources close to the
investigation.

    A few weeks after he spoke with Fitzgerald,
Luskin arranged for Rove to return to the grand
jury for a fifth time to testify in hopes of
fending off an indictment related to Rove's role
in the CIA leak, sources said.

    That meeting was followed almost immediately
by an announcement by newly-appointed White House
Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten of changes in the
responsibilities of some White House officials,
including Rove, who was stripped of his policy
duties and would no longer hold the title of
deputy White House chief of staff.

    The White House said Rove would focus on the
November elections and his change in status in no
way reflected his fifth appearance before the
grand jury or the possibility of an indictment.

    But since Rove testified two weeks ago, the
White House has been
coordinating a response to what is sure to be the
biggest political scandal it has faced thus far:
the loss of a key political operative who has
been instrumental in shaping White House policy
on a wide range of domestic issues.

    Rove testified that he first found out about
Plame Wilson from reading a newspaper report in
July 2003 and only after the story was published
did he share damaging information about her CIA
status with other reporters.

    However, evidence has surfaced during the
course of the two-year-old investigation that
shows Rove spoke with at least two reporters
about Plame Wilson prior to the publication of
the column.

    The explanation Rove provided to the grand
jury - that he was dealing with more urgent White
House matters and therefore forgot - has not
convinced Fitzgerald that Rove has been entirely
truthful in his testimony and resulted in the
indictment.

    Some White House staffers said it's the
uncertainty of Rove's status in the leak case
that has made it difficult for the
administration's domestic policy agenda and the
announcement of an indictment and Rove's
subsequent resignation, while serious, would
allow the administration to move forward on a
wide range of issues.

    "We need to start fresh and we can't do that
with the uncertainty of Karl's case hanging over
our heads," said one White House aide. "There's
no doubt that it will be front page news if and
when (an indictment) happens. But eventually it
will become old news quickly. The key issue here
is that the president or Mr. Bolten respond to
the charges immediately, make a statement and
then move on to other important policy issues and
keep that as the main focus going forward."