Date: November 28, 2005 7:24:13 AM PST
Subject: [IPCUSA] Fitzgerald Targets Rove Again
Fitzgerald Targets Rove Again
By Jason Leopold
t r u t h o u t | Investigative Report
Monday 28 November 2005
Continuing his two-year-old investigation into the leak of Valerie
Plame Wilson's identity as a covert CIA agent, Special Prosecutor Patrick
Fitzgerald will present evidence to a second grand jury this week that could
lead to a criminal indictment being handed up against Karl Rove, President
Bush's deputy chief of staff, sources inside the investigation said over the
weekend.
For the past month, Rove has remained under intense scrutiny by
Fitzgerald's office. During that time Fitzgerald, according to these
sources, has acquired evidence that Rove tried to cover up his role in the
leak by withholding crucial facts from investigators and the grand jury on
three separate occasions, beginning in October 2003, about a conversation he
had with Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper, as well as not being
truthful about the reasons that call was not logged by his office.
Rove's conversation with Cooper took place a week or so before
Plame Wilson's identity was first revealed, in a July 14, 2003, column
published by conservative journalist Robert Novak. Cooper had written his
own story about Plame Wilson a few days later.
During previous testimony before the grand jury, Rove said he
first learned Plame Wilson's name from reporters - specifically, from
Novak's column - and only after her name was published did he discuss Plame
Wilson's CIA status with other journalists. That sequence of events,
however, as described by Rove during his grand jury testimony, has turned
out not to be true, and his reasons for not being forthcoming have not
convinced Fitzgerald that Rove had a momentary lapse, according to sources.
Still, Robert Luskin, Rove's lawyer, maintains that his client has
not intentionally withheld facts from the prosecutor or the grand jury but
had simply forgotten about his conversations with Cooper, the sources said.
Luskin would not return calls for comment.
Fitzgerald will present evidence to the grand jury later this
week, obtained from other witnesses who were interviewed by the Special
Prosecutor or who testified, showing that Rove lied during the three times
he testified under oath and that he made misleading statements to Justice
Department and FBI investigators in an attempt to cover up his role in the
leak when he was first interviewed about it in October 2003, the sources
said.
The most serious charges Rove faces are making false statements to
investigators and obstruction of justice, the sources said. He does not
appear to be in jeopardy of violating the law making it a crime to leak the
name of a covert CIA agent, because it's unlikely that Rove was unaware that
Plame Wilson was undercover, the sources said.
However, according to the sources, two things are very clear:
either Rove will agree to enter into a plea deal with Fitzgerald or he will
be charged with a crime, but he will not be exonerated for the role he
played in the leak, based on numerous internal conversations Fitzgerald has
had with his staff. If Rove does agree to enter into a plea, Fitzgerald is
not expected to discuss any aspect of his probe into Rove, because Rove may
be called to testify as a prosecution witness against Lewis "Scooter" Libby,
the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney. Libby was indicted
last month on five counts of lying to investigators, perjury, and
obstruction of justice related to his role in the leak.
Moreover, a second high-ranking official in the Bush
administration also faces the possibility of indictment for making false
statements to investigators about his role in the leak: National Security
Adviser Stephen Hadley.
Hadley had been interviewed in 2004 about his role in the leak and
had vehemently denied speaking to reporters about Plame Wilson, the sources
said. However, these sources have identified Hadley as sharing information
about Plame Wilson with Washington Post editor Bob Woodward, whose stunning
revelation two weeks ago - that he was the first journalist to learn of
Plame Wilson's identity in mid-June 2003 and had kept that fact secret for
two years - led Fitzgerald to return to a second grand jury. A spokeswoman
at the National Security Council denied that Hadley was Woodward's source.
Hadley, on the other hand, would neither confirm nor deny that he was
Woodward's source when he was questioned by reporters two weeks ago.
Woodward testified two weeks ago about what he knew and when he knew it.
Woodward would not publicly reveal the identity of his source.
Rove had emailed Hadley following the conversation he had with
Cooper in July 2003 regarding former Ambassador Joseph Wilson's trip to
Niger to investigate allegations Iraq had tried to purchase uranium from the
African country, which President Bush had referred to in his January 2003
State of the Union address, and which many critics believe was the silver
bullet that convinced the American public and Congress to support a
pre-emptive strike against Iraq.
Wilson, who is married to Plame Wilson, was a critic of the
administration's pre-war Iraq intelligence. It was during Rove's
conversation with Cooper that Wilson's CIA agent wife was discussed with the
reporter, in an attempt to discredit Wilson and dissuade him from continuing
to criticize the administration's rationale for war.
Earlier this month, the sources said, Fitzgerald received
additional testimony from Rove's former personal assistant, Susan B.
Ralston, who was also a special assistant to President Bush. Ralston said
that Rove instructed her not to log a phone call Rove had with Cooper about
Plame Wilson in July 2003.
Ralston previously worked as a personal secretary to Jack
Abramoff, the Republican power lobbyist being investigated for allegations
of defrauding Indian tribes and who was recently indicted on conspiracy and
wire fraud charges. While working with Abramoff, Ralston arranged
fundraisers and events at Washington MCI Center skyboxes for members of
Congress. Ralston communicated with Rove on Abramoff's behalf on tribal
affairs, though she is not accused of wrongdoing.
Ralston provided Fitzgerald with more information and some
"clarification" about several telephone calls Rove allegedly made to a few
reporters, including syndicated columnist Robert Novak, lawyers close to the
investigation say.
Ralston testified in August that Cooper's name was not noted in
the call logs from Rove's office, those familiar with the case say,
testifying that because Cooper's call was transferred to Rove's office from
the White House switchboard it was not logged. If Cooper had called Rove's
office directly, the call would have been logged, Ralston testified.
But sources say that Fitzgerald has obtained documentary evidence
proving that that scenario does not jibe with other unrelated calls to
Rove's office that were also transferred to his office by the switchboard
but were logged.
As Rove's senior adviser, Ralston screened Rove's calls. Her
additional testimony may help Fitzgerald prove that there were
inconsistencies in Rove's account of his role in the leak and assess why he
withheld a crucial fact from the prosecutor: that Rove had spoken with Time
magazine reporter Matthew Cooper as well as Novak about Plame and confirmed
that she was an undercover CIA agent.
On Sunday, Time magazine reported that another one of its
reporters, Viveca Novak, who bears no relation to Robert Novak, is
cooperating with Fitzgerald's probe and will give a deposition to Fitzgerald
about a conversation she had with Rove's attorney, Robert Luskin, in May
2004.
However, Viveca Novak did not write a single story about the Plame
Wilson leak under her byline between May and December 2004. The first time
she authored or co-authored a story about the leak following the May 2004
meeting with Luskin was in July 2005, so it's unclear why Fitzgerald is
suddenly interested in questioning her. But her upcoming testimony proves
that Fitzgerald is keeping the pressure on Rove.
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