Maybe Rove Isn't In The Clear After All

by Steve

This story in today’s Post is important not because it restates the obvious about Libby’s interests diverging from those of the Bush Administration, but because of what it says about Rove:

A senior White House adviser, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive topic, said the Bush team believes it dodged a bullet when Fitzgerald charged only Libby on Friday and then pointedly said in his news conference that the indictment should not be read as a condemnation of the war or its run-up.

The senior adviser said the situation will become a much bigger problem if Rove is indicted.

OK, but what about that, and what about the Spikey Mikey Isikoff story late last week that Rove's attorney Robert Luskin steered Fitzgerald away from an indictment at the last minute by convincing Fitz there was an alternate explanation for Rove's email to Adam Levine and testimony?

A source familiar with the discussion between Rove and Fitzgerald said the Tuesday meeting was about a lot more than "just an e-mail from Levine." He would not elaborate.

Rove remains a focus of the CIA leak probe. He has told friends it is possible he still will be indicted for providing false statements to the grand jury.

"Everyone thinks it is over for Karl and they are wrong," a source close to Rove said. The strategist's legal and political advisers "by no means think the part of the investigation concerning Karl is closed."

A cynic (like me) would say that this is just another example of Rove setting the expectation that he will be indicted and then getting a pass on the whole thing if Fitzgerald does nothing further with him at this time. But an attorney involved in the case doesn't think that will happen.

Cooper's attorney, Dick Sauber, said Fitzgerald certainly meant it when he told Luskin last week that Rove remains in legal jeopardy and under investigation. "It wouldn't surprise me knowing how careful he is and how much he doesn't want to be seen as trigger-happy, that he is going through each of those things [that Rove presented] and seeing if they can be verified or not," Sauber said.

"But no prosecutor wants to be embarrassed in court by something he didn't know. And no prosecutor, especially Pat Fitzgerald, wants to be seen as unfair -- especially in this kind of matter with so much at stake."

And how quickly could Fitzgerald act on whatever he finds out about the late-breaking information he got from Rove?

Fitzgerald's original grand jury was released from service Friday, after its term expired. Courthouse officials said he is likely to "borrow" a grand jury already convened to investigate additional crimes if needed, and could wrap up his investigation in less than two weeks. It is not uncommon for a prosecutor to quickly present his case to a new grand jury and ask for an indictment, they said.

In other words, smack dab in the middle of the Alito confirmation battle, a battle that was scripted by Rove.