Jason Leopold at Raw Story strikes again. He continues to lead the pack, breaking releases on the likely impending indictment of Karl Rove. Leopold's breaking headline tonight at Raw Story is
Rove, Hadley email 'at crux' of CIA leak investigation. Leopold reveals that it has been Karl Rove's failure to turn over or reveal his email to Hadley after his Mathew Cooper conversation that will be the core charge in his potential impending indictment.
Rove appears to have waited until eight months after two Grand Jury subpoenas, and grand jury testimony to finally disclose his Mathew Cooper conversation and email to Hadley. Rove and his lawyer Luskin did not reveal this conversation to Fitzpatrick until afer Novak tipped Luskin off that Fitzgerald already knew about this failures of disclosure all along and already suspected Rove of destroying evidence. Fitzgerald already had the email from another source. And was patiently setting a perjury trap the whole time.
Rove's alleged failure to disclose his conversations with Cooper and Novak and the fact that he didn't turn over the Hadley email on two separate occasions is the reason he's been in Fitzgerald's crosshairs and may end up being indicted, people close to the investigation said.
It's also the reason Fitzgerald had grown suspicious at the time that Rove may have hid or destroyed evidence related to his role in the leak, they said, adding that Fitzgerald may have already been aware of the existence of the email, perhaps even obtaining a copy from a witness or another White House official, and waited to see if Rove would cite it or his conversations with Cooper in his grand jury testimony.
So the crafty Fitzgerald had been laying a perjury trap for Rove and Luskin all along and they got snagged. A careful reading of the timeline, makes it seem highly unlikely that Rove and Luskin can find any reasonable and plausible explanation for an eight month delay in finally confessing to the Cooper discussion and turning over the email
And President Bush's repeated expressions of confidence in Karl Rove over the last several days are raising speculation that the long awaited indictment and resignation time are growing near. Although, President Bush has not yet uttered the famous "you're doing a heck of a job Rovie" kiss of death blessing, other signs of an immenent departure are brewing.
It may also explain why Rove's attorney, Robert Luskin, has reportedly testified that he had a conversation with one of Cooper's Time magazine colleagues, Viveca Novak, in February 2004. Luskin maintains that he and Novak met in February of 2004 over drinks in Washington, D.C. and Novak tipped him off that she heard Rove was Cooper's source.
By bringing Novak into the mix, Luskin came up with a defense for why Rove did not immediately recall having a conversation with Cooper. It's important for Luskin to assert that the meeting took place that month, otherwise he doesn't have a good defense for why the email he sent to Hadley wasn't found the second time.
In late January 2004, the grand jury investigating whether top officials in the Bush administration knowingly leaked Valerie Plame Wilson's name and covert CIA status to reporters subpoenaed the White House for records of administration contacts with more than two-dozen journalists going back two years, to determine if any officials talked about Plame with the media.
According to people close to Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's probe, one such document was not turned over to the grand jury by the Feb. 6, 2004 deadline: an email White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove had sent in July 2003 to then-Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley. In the email, Rove told Hadley that he spoke to Time Magazine reporter Matthew Cooper about Plame's husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, a vocal critic of the administration's prewar Iraq intelligence.
Rove testified before the grand jury for the first time in February 2004. At the time, he didn't disclose that he had been one of the anonymous sources for Cooper and conservative columnist Robert Novak. The two filed the first stories on Plame, identifying her as a CIA operative.
Rove had told the grand jury, as well as FBI and Justice Department investigators, that he learned about Plame's identity after reading about her in news reports. Only then did he speak about Plame with other journalists, people familiar with his grand jury testimony said.
January 22, 2004: Second Grand Jury Subpoenae
The grand jury subpoenaed the White House for any information concerning contacts with the 25 reporters on Jan. 22, 2004. It was the second time a directive was issued ordering White House officials to turn over records to determine if officials had spoken about Plame, her husband, and the administration's claims that Iraq had attempted to acquire uranium-the key component for a nuclear bomb-from Niger with journalists.
Fall 2003: First Enjoinment From Alberto Gonzales
Three months earlier, in late 2003, then-White House counsel Alberto Gonzales enjoined all White House staff to turn over any communication about Valerie Plame Wilson and her husband. Gonzales' request came 12 hours after senior White House officials had been told of the pending investigation.
The email Rove sent to Hadley never turned up in that request either, people close to the investigation said.
Novak testimony About Luskin discussion Between March and May of 2004
Novak testified last week that she spoke with Luskin several times during the first half of 2004. But she did not believe she said anything to Luskin in February about Rove being Cooper's source. In her first person Time magazine account about her testimony, she wrote that she believed she told Luskin in either March or May-but most likely May-that the internal buzz at Time was that Rove was Cooper's source for his story on Plame.
Luskin testified that after he spoke with Novak, he and Rove did an exhaustive search for evidence to determine if Rove did in fact speak with Cooper about Plame. Luskin said they then found the Hadley email and turned it over to Fitzgerald.
If Luskin and Novak did meet in March or May and discuss Rove being Cooper's source it doesn't address why the Hadley email didn't turn up in January, when the White House was subpoenaed.
Luskin Claims He and Novak Met in February
That's why Luskin has been insistent that he and Novak met in February, people close to the case said, in order to explain how he was able to find the Hadley email just as the White House was responding to the subpoena. Otherwise, it hurts Rove's case and makes it much more difficult for Fitzgerald and the grand jury to believe that Luskin and Rove were able to find the same email months later after speaking with Novak, people close to the case said.
But does this not also implicate Luskin in a conspiracy to obstruct justice? Even lawyers for defendants are not allowed to knowing repeat statements to a grand jury that they know are false. The worm turns.
Rove Did Not Testify About Conversation With Cooper Until October 15, 2004
Still, Rove did not testify about his conversation with Cooper until Oct. 15, 2004. It's unclear when Luskin turned over the Hadley email to Fitzgerald and why it took at best nearly six months for Rove to finally testify about his conversation with Cooper.
"What Luskin is doing is trying to say that he found the email after his conversation with Ms. Novak but before the White House turned over evidence of administration contacts with journalists," one attorney close to the case said. "He understands that it would be quite difficult to explain to the prosecutor how this email miraculously turned up in either March or May but not in January or February. That's why it appears he is stating that he spoke with Ms. Novak in February."
This discrepancy is at the crux of what Fitzgerald is investigating.
Rove didn't reveal to the grand jury that he had spoken with Cooper until Oct. 15, 2004. Luskin says that Rove did not intentionally withhold information from Fitzgerald or the grand jury about his conversation with Cooper. Rather, he says Rove had simply forgotten about it, and Luskin's meeting with Novak had helped jog Rove's memory.
Leopold reports "Luskin did not return calls for comment and did not respond to an email list of questions." And this is the same Luskin who had comments and spin for every article about this for the last two years.
Another interesting bit of new information I learned from the Leopold release is the names of the 25 journalists Fitzgerald named in the Jan 22, 2004 subpoena.
The Jan. 22, 2004 subpoena, one of three sent to the White House on Jan. 22, 2004, asked for administration contacts with 25 journalists. Those individuals are Robert Novak, "Crossfire," "Capital Gang" and the Chicago Sun-Times; Knut Royce and Timothy M. Phelps, Newsday; Walter Pincus, Richard Leiby, Mike Allen, Dana Priest and Glenn Kessler, The Washington Post; Matthew Cooper, John Dickerson, Massimo Calabresi, Michael Duffy and James Carney, Time magazine; Evan Thomas, Newsweek; Andrea Mitchell, "Meet the Press," NBC; Chris Matthews, "Hardball," MSNBC; Tim Russert, Campbell Brown, NBC; Nicholas D. Kristof, David E. Sanger and Judith Miller, The New York Times; Greg Hitt and Paul Gigot, The Wall Street Journal; John Solomon, The Associated Press; and Jeff Gannon, Talon News.
Finally, more and more factual information is becoming public. And the more we get the more we can say in the spirit of the famous Doonesbury Carton:
Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!
If any kind and skill googlist can bring us this Mark Slackmeyer cartoon, I can virtually guareentee you will get at least as many "valuable" Mojo Comment Credits as I do.
You will be our hero for the whole evening I guareentee it! We will sing your praise. And I will figure out how to send this to Rove et. al. LOL
And how about this Bush fellow and his multiyear campaign to subvert the Juducial Branch of the Constitution, folks? Not not just the Legislative Branch I've been accussing of him off! But the whole darn government and US Constitutional System of Check and Balances. Does this guy have Kahoonaas the size of watermelons or what?
Don't you just have to love this guy, for sheer audacity?
It's amazing really when you think about it. Truly astonishing. I'm almost speechless! LOL Well, not quite, but almost.
As far as I am concerned he is"
GUILTY! GUILTY! GUILTY!
It time to bring these clowns to justice folks.
And please note. I have changed my tag line once again. Back more towards the original Sniffing Out High Crimes and Misdemeanors in the White House.
I am a little embarassed and apoligetic that I succumbed to peer pressure and tried to become a more positive person.
Hey, I don't care what the grammer police say here. If there has ever been a case in history in this whole decade that justifyes, all caps, and bolds and extra exclamation marks it is this. I am pulling all the stops friends.
GUILTY! GUILTY! GUILTY! !! !!! !!!!
A Revived HoundDog Back On the Case!