Monday, March 27, 2006

Raw Story Says Rove's A Rat In The CIA Leak Case

A lot of people thought Karl Rove had made a deal with Fitzgerald in order to avoid indictment back in October when the Special Prosecutor in the CIA leak case was bringing the hammer down on Scooter Libby on obstruction, perjury and false statement charges.

If you believe this report from Raw Story today, it sure sounds like Rove made a plea deal:

Karl Rove, Deputy White House Chief of Staff and special adviser to President George W. Bush, has recently been providing information to special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald in the ongoing CIA leak investigation, sources close to the investigation say.

According to several Pentagon sources close to Rove and others familiar with the inquiry, Bush's senior adviser tipped off Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald to information that led to the recent "discovery" of 250 pages of missing email from the office of Vice President Dick Cheney.

...

While these sources did not provide any details regarding what type of arrangements Rove's attorney Robert Luskin may have made with the special prosecutor's office, if any, they were able to provide some information regarding what Rove imparted to Fitzgerald's team. The individuals declined to go on the record out of concern for their jobs.

According to one source close to the case, Rove is providing information on deleted emails, erased hard drives and other types of obstruction by staff and other officials in the Vice President's office. Pentagon sources close to Rove confirmed this account.

None would name the staffers and/or officials whom Rove is providing information about. They did, however, explain that the White House computer system has "real time backup" servers and that while emails were deleted from computers, they were still retrievable from the backup system. By providing the dates and recipient information of the deleted emails, sources say, Rove was able to chart a path for Fitzgerald directly into the office of the Vice President.

Steve Clemons at the Washington Note says he has confirmed the "essential points" in the story through a source close to Rove that Dear Karl did indeed tip Fitzgerald off to the 250 pages of "missing" White House emails.

So will Rove get away with ratting out somebody in the White House for the email deletions?

Jeralyn at Talk Left says somebody's going to get charged with obstruction for deleting the White House emails and as defendants, they're going to get reports of Rove's involvement, These reports, she notes, will eventually be leaked to the press and expose Rove's plea deal.

Jeralyn also thinks Karl's still singing on others in either the White House or the V.P.'s office in order to avoid jail time:

My instincts tell me Rove will still have to plead to making a false statement to federal officials -- but he's now worked himself down to probation and no jail in exchange for his cooperation. Fitz may allow him to remain uncharged until at least Libby's trial is over, and then let him plead to an Information charging a single false statement count.

So when will Rove's side push back against this story? According to Raw Story, Rove's lawyer, Robert Luskin, denied that Rove made a special plea deal or is cooperating with prosecutors as part of a deal.

But I bet Karl won't be too happy if the story begins to circulate that he's a rat who turning state's evidence agianst some former and/or current comrades in the administration.

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