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Round-Up

. Looks like everyone's struggling to keep up with Patrick Fitzgerald. NYT:

With the term of his grand jury at an end, Mr. Fitzgerald said he could present any new evidence to an already impaneled grand jury if needed.

Already impaneled? That's new.

Mr. Rove's lawyer, Robert D. Luskin, said in a statement he was confident Mr. Fitzgerald would conclude Mr. Rove had done nothing wrong.

Yeah and I remain confident that my dog Kobe will win the Nobel Prize. Whatever.

Mr. Libby could face a trial that seems likely to expose to the public some of the administration's innermost workings and probably require testimony by Mr. Cheney. And it only highlighted how many elements of the case remained obscured by the secrecy of the legal proceedings.

As Redd has said, you don't put everything you've got in the indictment. You know those fuckers are poring over the indictments right now wondering what else Fitzgerald has unearthed from underneath that slimy rock. Rove's probably on the phone right now. "Hey Ari! Long time no speak. No, no, not mad at all. Say, what exactly did you say to the big Irish dude?"

Mr. Fitzgerald was spotted Friday morning outside the office of James Sharp, Mr. Bush's personal lawyer. Mr. Bush was interviewed about the case by Mr. Fitzgerald last year. It is not known what discussions, if any, were taking place between the prosecutor and Mr. Sharp. Mr. Sharp did not return a phone call, and Mr. Fitzgerald's spokesman, Randall Samborn, declined to comment.

Wow. I have absolutely no way to read that one, and certainly nothing that swings positive for Dubya.

At his news conference, Mr. Fitzgerald did not explain his reasons for taking no action against Mr. Rove, even though the prosecutor had advised him that he might be indicted and had continued interviewing witnesses and reviewing evidence as recently as midweek.

Well, fortunately Mr. Rove himself provided some illumination through statements this morning to the LA Times:

As recently as Tuesday, for example, prosecutors began to focus on a 2003 e-mail exchange between Rove and a White House colleague. The exchange could be seen as supporting Rove's contention that he had not intentionally misled investigators.

Lawyers familiar with the case believe these e-mails were one element of a broad, eleventh-hour review of evidence — coupled with negotiations by Rove's lawyers — that led Special Prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald not to include him in Friday's action.

(snip)

The e-mail exchange reviewed by prosecutors was between Rove and former White House media spokesman Adam Levine, and it focused on a topic unrelated to Plame or Wilson.

The exchange occurred several hours after Rove had talked to Time reporter Cooper. Prosecutors went back and interviewed Levine again this week, asking whether Rove had mentioned his conversations with Cooper. Rove did not initially tell investigators about his conversation with Cooper. In another session, Rove recalled that he had spoken with the reporter.

Levine told investigators that Rove had not brought up Plame or the Cooper conversation — suggesting that the topics were not priorities for Rove at the time.

"Levine's acknowledgment that the Cooper conversation did not come up in my client's conversation with Rove seems to support a theory that it just wasn't that important to Rove and could therefore have been easily forgotten," said Daniel French, Levine's attorney.

Okay. So let me get this straight. This is your fucking defense? After twenty-two months and untold man hours, we're supposed to believe that Fitzgerald abandoned the idea of pressing perjury charges against Rove because he didn't mention something to Adam Levine?

Fucking hell, I'll be your alibi, Turdy. I didn't talk with you about it, either.

If that's the best spin Rove can come up with, stick a fork in him 'cos he's done.

. For some wonderful edification on the finer points of the indictments, go and visit emptywheel over at the next hurrah, who is going over them with a fine tooth comb. The depth of her knowledge is just amazing.

. Oh and take a peek over at DKos, where one of the top o' the recommended list is a diary about how Redd got it right and the MSM got it wrong.

. Digby: "Can there be any doubt that the Bush administration bet the farm on the idea that the press would keep their mouths shut? And can we all see that they were very close to being right? If Fitzgerald hadn't been willing to take it to the mat, they would have gotten off scott free. "

. Gilliard: "The funny thing is that after five years of Bush, people are so cynical that they think he can just throw up a few lies and walk away. He can't, much less pardon anyone. All the conservative bleeting about the indictment is just that, bleeting. It isn't serious....No, this is isn't Watergate, this is worse, because the criminality goes right to the WH. No henchmen acting on their own. It is likely this came from Cheney himself."

posted by Jane Hamsher @ 10/29/2005 01:07:00 PM