Rumor: Double-digit Indictments Immenent in Plame Case

[Nbadan]

Rumors are circulating fast and furious around Washington and the blogosphere that at least 10, and/or as many as 22 indictments could be handed out by the end of this week in the Plame/CIA leak case by Special Counsel Fitzgerald.

Wednesday, October 05, 2005
Breaking: Plame Case


You heard it here first - rumor has it that 22 separate indictments will be handed down tomorrow in the Plame case. Normally I don't put much stock in rumors like this but when it's specific enough to include an exact number, I start believing...

Blogspot

Keep the Champaign chilled and the cigar cutters at the ready folks, this could be the big one!

:hat

[Marcus Bryant]

Nothing better than a non-existent link.

[FromWayDowntown]

Keep the Champaign chilled and the cigar cutters at the ready folks, this could be the big one!

For the life of me, I can't figure out what Dan's interest in securing indictments has to do with smoking cigars in an Illinois college town after a cold front blows through.

or, maybe he meant "champagne."

Well there is little quite like celebrating someone else's misery.

[Nbadan]

For the life of me, I can't figure out what Dan's interest in securing indictments has to do with smoking cigars in an Illinois college town after a cold front blows through.

or, maybe he meant "champagne."

Well there is little quite like celebrating someone else's misery.

Ahh...not even a tiny misspelling is going to ruin my mood today.

The day of reckoning for this war, this illegal war is coming.

:hat

[Nbadan]

Here is a rundown of the rumored mostly likely to be indicted...

21 Administration Officials Involved In Plame Leak
The cast of administration characters with known connections to the outing of an undercover CIA agent:


Karl Rove I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby Condoleezza Rice Stephen Hadley Andrew Card Alberto Gonzales Mary Matalin Ari Fleischer Susan Ralston Israel Hernandez John Hannah Scott McClellan Dan Bartlett Claire Buchan Catherine Martin Colin Powell Karen Hughes Adam Levine Bob Joseph Vice President Dick Cheney President George W. Bush

(Comment on this page here.)

Karl Rove Senior Advisor to President Bush (2001-2005); Deputy White House Chief of Staff (2005-Present) ADMINISTRATION, ROVE ORIGINALLY DENIED ANY INVOLVMENT IN THE LEAK: Asked on 9/29/03 whether he had “any knowledge” of the leak or whether he leaked the name of the CIA agent, Rove answered “no.” That same day, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan, after having “spoken to Karl,” asserted that “it is a ridiculous suggestion” to say Rove was involved in the leak. In August 2004, Rove maintained, “I didn’t know her name and didn’t leak her name.”

<snip>

I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby Chief of Staff to Vice President Cheney (2001-Present) CHENEY AND LIBBY PRESSURED CIA ON URANIUM: Cheney and Libby visited the CIA headquarters to engage the CIA analysts directly on this issue of uranium acquisition in Africa, “creating an environment in which some analysts felt they were being pressured to make their assessments fit with the Bush administration’s policy objectives.”

LIBBY, WITH ROVE AND HADLEY, PREPARED TENET’S RESPONSE TO NIGER CRITICISMS: Karl Rove and I. Lewis Libby Jr., were helping to prepare what became the administration’s primary response to criticism that a flawed phrase about the nuclear materials in Africa had been included in Mr. Bush’s State of the Union address six months earlier. They had exchanged e-mail correspondence and drafts of a proposed statement by George Tenet, then the director of central intelligence, to explain how the disputed wording had gotten into the address. Mr. Rove, the president’s political strategist, and Mr. Libby, the chief of staff for Vice President Dick Cheney, coordinated their efforts with Stephen Hadley, then the deputy national security adviser, who was in turn consulting with Mr. Tenet.

Bellacio (http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=8649)

I can neither attest too, nor deny the credibility of this source, or this rumor, but it is out there.

[SpursWoman]

Well there is little quite like celebrating someone else's misery.



It's been a very busy day in the forum it looks like....first we're happy when nightmares come true and now we're celebrating someone's misery.


Isn't that precious. :spin

[FromWayDowntown]

It's been a very busy day in the forum it looks like....first we're happy when nightmares come true and now we're celebrating someone's misery.


Isn't that precious. :spin

I forgot those old rules -- was Wednesday "Opposite Day?" I feel like I've been reading the opposite of common sense most of today.

[Marcus Bryant]

Well, I've had a Davidoff and a Macanudo tonight...and 4 Tecates as well...

[scott]

You should have gone with High Life... it's the Champagne of beers ya know.

[Nbadan]

It's been a very busy day in the forum it looks like....first we're happy when nightmares come true and now we're celebrating someone's misery.

Isn't that precious. :spin

Humm…but hardly anyone said a word in defense of Joe Wilson and his wife Valarie Plame while they were being dragged through the mud by the right-wing echo-chamber during the investigation. I guess attacking Wilson's misery was OK though, right?

I'm not sure what's gonna happen in this case, Fitzgerald could pull all 21 indictments or he may post no indictments at all. If it's Lewis Libby alone, you know, then great, let the prosecution take it course, but I'm not sure what would happen if both the VP and President were indicted? Can they be tried while still serving? Would they have to step down?

[Nbadan]

REUTERS: DECISIONS TO INDICT WITHIN DAYS


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The federal prosecutor investigating who leaked the identity of a CIA operative is expected to signal within days whether he intends to bring indictments in the case, legal sources close to the investigation said on Wednesday.

As a first step, prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald was expected to notify officials by letter if they have become targets, said the lawyers, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

Fitzgerald could announce plea agreements, bring indictments, or conclude that no crime was committed. By the end of this month he is expected to wrap up his nearly two-year-old investigation into who leaked CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity.

The inquiry has ensnared President George W. Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove, and Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby. The White House had long maintained that Rove and Libby had nothing to do with the leak but reporters have since named them as sources.

Rove's attorney, Robert Luskin, declined to say whether his client had been contacted by Fitzgerald. In the past, Luskin has said that Rove was assured that he was not a target.

Libby's lawyer was not immediately available to comment.

"It's an ongoing investigation and we're fully cooperating," said Cheney spokeswoman Lea Anne McBride.

The outcome of the investigation could shake up an administration already reeling from criticism over its response to Hurricane Katrina and the indictment of House Republican leader Tom DeLay on a conspiracy charge related to campaign financing.

New York Times reporter Judith Miller testified to the grand jury on Friday about the conversations she had with Libby.

Plame's diplomat husband, Joseph Wilson, has accused the administration of leaking her name, damaging her ability to work undercover, to get back at him for criticizing Bush's Iraq policy.

Fitzgerald's agreement to limit the scope of Miller's testimony to her conversations with Libby -- a proposal he rejected a year earlier -- suggested that Libby had become "the focus of interest," said one of the lawyers involved in the case.

After initially promising to fire anyone found to have leaked information in the case, Bush in July offered a more qualified pledge: "If someone committed a crime they will no longer work in my administration."

Reuters (http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyid=2005-10-06T010649Z_01_KWA603946_RTRUKOC_0_US-BUSH-LEAK.xml)

Rawstory (http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Rove_missing_from_events_Word_on_1005.html) is reporting today that Karl Rove has already received one of these target letters from Fitzgerald...


Update: Rove's lawyer will no longer deny client a target

President Bush's most trusted adviser, Karl Rove, has been absent from recent White House events, leading those close to a CIA outing case to speculate that he has been told he is the target of an investigation, RAW STORY can confirm.

The buzz on Capitol Hill is that Rove has received what sources called a "target letter," or a letter from the prosecutor investigating the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson telling him that he is now a target in the investigation. To date, no reporters have been able to confirm this account. One lawyer says that at this point in the investigation it would be more likely any letters would normally be notifications of an indictment.

Late Wednesday, Reuters added a new element, saying Rove's attorney, Robert Luskin, declined to say whether his client had been contacted by the prosecutor in the case.

"In the past, Luskin has said that Rove was assured that he was not a target," Reuters notes.

Rove disappeared from the scene around the time he was diagnosed with kidney stones in mid-September, sources close to the White House tell RAW STORY. At first, the belief was that he was off the beat to recover from his illness.

But his absence at President Bush's press conference Monday where Bush announced that he had chosen Harriet Miers to succeed Sandra Day O'Connor on the Supreme Court raised eyebrows. Rove is usually present at such events.

President Bush has declined to say whether he would fire Rove if he were indicted. He has said that he would fire any White House staff that was found guilty in the case

[cecil collins]

It's been a very busy day in the forum it looks like....first we're happy when nightmares come true and now we're celebrating someone's misery.


Isn't that precious. :spin

Conservatives are always waiting for some bullshit string to pull. Oh, but wait you aren't conservative right...

[Nbadan]

Check out this letter by Lewis Libby to Judy Miller while she was still in Jail..

A 'Dear Judy' Letter from 'Scooter'--With 'Admiration'
By E&P Staff
Published: October 01, 2005 10:55 AM ET


NEW YORK In a New York Times article today on the latest turn involving Judith Miller, who made a deal with the prosecutor for her release from jail on Thursday, Adam Liptak observes that a series of just-released letters hint that “a similar deal may have been available for some time and raise questions about why Ms. Miller decided to testify now.”

One of the letters, from the key source, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, to Miller on September 15, expressed surprise that her lawyers had asked him to "repeat for you the waiver of confidentiality that I specifically gave to your counsel over a year ago." Surprisingly, he stated that he expected her testimony to help him.

This “Dear Judy” letter repeatedly expressed his admiration for her and cited everything she was losing in jail, from missing out on covering new biological threats to enjoying the aspens turning out West. He noted that the aspens "turn in clusters, because their roots connect them."

But maybe the personal tone is not so surprising. The letter suggests that the two, who saw eye to eye on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, which never materialized, are either very close-—or Libby was just pretending, to make her go easy on him if she did testify.

The text of the entire letter, which was mailed to Miller's attorney, Robert Bennett, has not been printed in the Times or elsewhere.

It begins with “Dear Judy, Your reporting, and you are missed. Like many Americans, I admire your principled stand. But, like many friends and readers, I would welcome you back among the rest of us, doing what you do best—reporting.”

Then, several paragraphs expressed his surprise that she has not acted on his voluntary offer of a year earlier to waive his rights to confidentiality, since it “served my best interests…this is the rare case where this ‘source’ will be better off if you testified.” He dubbed this the “Miller corollary.”

He closed the letter on this personal note (although he wasn’t quite right on when autumn begins): “You went into jail in the summer. It is fall now. You will have stories to cover—Iraqi elections and suicide bombers, biological threats and the Iranian nuclear program. Out West, where you vacation, the aspens will already be turning. They turn in clusters, because their roots connect them. Come back to work—-and life. Until then, you will remain in my thoughts and prayers.”

“With admiration, Scooter Libby.”

Editor and Publisher (http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001220134)

Why would Scooter Libby write Judith Miller poetry? Was he really trying to win her over so she wouldn't talk so much to Fitzgerald? Or is there something else going on here?

[SpursWoman]

Conservatives are always waiting for some bullshit string to pull. Oh, but wait you aren't conservative right...


huh?

[SpursWoman]

Humm…but hardly anyone said a word in defense of Joe Wilson and his wife Valarie Plame while they were being dragged through the mud by the right-wing echo-chamber during the investigation. I guess attacking Wilson's misery was OK though, right?


Sorry, I didn't follow the case at all...I had more important things going on in my life about that time.

:fro

[Yonivore]

I wonder if Nbadan has considered that Joe Wilson may be #1 on the indictment list...