Treasongate: Rove's Fictions

by eriposte

Investigative journalist Murray Waas' latest article at National Journal is a must read because it elucidates not only some of the inaccurate statements that Rove made to the FBI and the grand jury (explaining his desperate plan to return to the grand jury to testify), but it also indirectly shows that Rove plans to be the fall guy for George W. Bush if the grand jury/Patrick Fitzgerald decide to indict him. For example, Rove has claimed that he never told Bush about his conversation regarding Valerie Plame with Time magazine's Matthew Cooper or his conversation with Robert Novak on the same matter - because of forgetfulness (in the former case) and because he did not think he was one of Novak's two sources (in the latter case). He also told Bush (and Scott McClellan) that he did not leak information about Valerie Plame to the media. There's a lot more in Waas' article worth checking out. There is some good discussion of the article by Emptywheel at The Next Hurrah and The Anonymous Liberal (also check out Firedoglake).

One point I would like to particularly emphasize is that Rove's claim that he just totally forgot about his conversation with Matt Cooper (when he spoke to Bush or with the FBI initially) simply does not pass the laugh test. Why? After all, Rove's and Libby's entire defense for treason outing the identity of Valerie Plame has been that they spoke to reporters to warn them off from trusting Joseph Wilson's claims, especially about the origin of Wilson's trip! So, Rove talks to a bunch of reporters (including Cooper) specifically about Joseph Wilson and the origins of his trip, Cooper publishes an article about it in Time magazine, Rove even writes Hadley an email about the Cooper conversation, and then claims this (from Waas' article):

In his first interview with FBI agents working on the leak probe, Rove similarly did not disclose that he had spoken to Cooper, according to sources close to the investigation.

But in subsequent interviews with federal investigators and in his testimony to the grand jury, Rove changed his account, asserting that when the FBI first questioned him, he had simply forgotten about his phone conversation with Cooper. Rove also told prosecutors that he had forgotten about the Cooper conversation when he talked to the president about the matter in the fall of 2003.

In other words, it was not that Rove mentioned his conversation with Cooper and then just forgot to mention he spoke to Cooper about Wilson and his wife. Rather, he says he totally forgot that the call even occurred! A call which, per their unjustifiable story/defense, was part of their organized campaign to "set the record straight" about Joseph Wilson's claims (at a time when the media was agog with negative stories about the White House and the SOTU uranium claim).

P.S. My GOP talking points rebuttal page on Treasongate (which also has more on Rove's lies) is a bit out of date, but for those who want to familiarize yourselves with the facts and rebuttals as of mid-July 2005, here it is. I will try and update it in the coming week.