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 that 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."
Jason Leopold
spent two years covering California's electricity crisis as Los Angeles
bureau chief of Dow Jones Newswires. Jason has spent the last year
cultivating sources close to the CIA leak investigation, and is a
regular contributor to t r u t h o u t. He is the author of the new book NEWS JUNKIE. Visit www.newsjunkiebook.com for a preview.