The MinuteMan On The Odds
Our good friend Tom Maguire has thrown caution to the wind and come out with his fearless predictions: Libby goes to trial, and Rove walks. The rest, you’ll have to read for yourself – and don’t miss the TradeSports updates, either…you, too, can personally profit from the outing of Valerie Plame!…
UPDATE 12:51 p.m.: The grand jury has been dismissed for the day…
UPDATE 2 12:53 p.m.: All right, let’s make it clear up front that this is unsourced, and I don’t vouch for the reliability of Raw Story, but:
Special Prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald has asked the grand jury investigating the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson to indict Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby and Bush’s Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice, lawyers close to the investigation tell RAW STORY.
Fitzgerald has also asked the jury to indict Libby on a second charge: knowingly outing a covert operative, the lawyers said. They said the prosecutor believes that Libby violated a 1982 law that made it illegal to unmask an undercover CIA agent.
…The grand jury had not yet decided on whether to make indictments at the time this article was published. It appears more likely that the jury would hand down indictments of perjury and obstruction than a charge that Plame was outed illegally.
Those close to the investigation said Rove was offered a deal Tuesday to plead guilty to perjury for a reduced charge. Rove’s lawyer was told that Fitzgerald would drop an obstruction of justice charge if his client agreed not to contest allegations of perjury, they said.
Rove declined to plead guilty to the reduced charge, the sources said, indicating through his attorney Robert Luskin that he intended to fight the charges. A call placed to Luskin was not returned.
Is it true? If so, that’s bad news, indeed; I had hope Rove would skate (and the grand jury, even if true, could choose not to indict)…we’ll know soon enough…
Think the Washington press corps is rabid about this case? This morning I saw a headline on the Net that said something like “Plame prosecutor arrives at courthouse,” along with a picture of him getting out of a car. Now where’s the report letting us know what shaving cream he uses and what he ordered for lunch?
Reminds me of back in the stock market heyday of the late ’90’s when people would go nuts trying to figure out what Greenspan might say by how he carried his briefcase, I kid you not…
The level of media frenzy is one of the few bright spots in this miserable affair. Unless Fitzgerald claims that Rove was on a grassy knoll in Dallas on a cold November day in 1963, the actual content of the indictments is likely to seem a bit anti-climactic.
I’ve got to admit, it’s been quite a while since I’ve seen the talking heads quite this worked up. They’ve convinced themselves this is going to be Watergate II: The Reckoning.
if it is as simple as libby did it, then my naivete is surely showing.
why did miller go to jail?
why did it take two full years of investigating?
WTF?
Dude. You’re worried about crap from RawStory? Relax.
Gulf Coast Bandit, yep, admittedly, the source is, shall we say, a bit suspect…
I predict Fitz will ask for a GJ extension after he hands down indictments to Libby and Rove. Friday.
Who are the two unnamed, non WH people?
Plame, wilson?
They broke the 1917 act…
mtl, there’s where I part company with you…I just can’t imagine Plame or Wilson being targets…