Raw Story: Fitz to Meet Grand Jury Wednesday
Update from Firedoglake:
David Shuster reported on MSNBC on Dan Abrams show at 4:35 pm ET that they were informed yesterday eveing that the G/J was prepared to meet today with Patrick Fitzgerald. But as of today, Fitzgerald was not at the courthouse today, neither were the members of the G/J. Additionally, this is a period of high anxiety for the Rove side of things, according to Shuster.
Raw Story reports that Patrick Fitzgerald will be meeting with the grand jury tomorrow to present it with the depositions of Viveca Novak and Robert Luskin, Karl Rove's lawyer. RS reports Fitz will wrap up by the end of the year.
RS believes, as I do, that Fitzgerald will charge Rove with making a false statement to federal officials in October, 2003, prior to the time the grand jury was convened. Here's RS on Fitz's meeting last week with the grand jury:
A week ago, Fitzgerald briefed the second grand jury hearing evidence in the leak case for more than three hours. During that time, he brought them up to speed on the latest developments involving Rove and at least one other White House official, the sources said. The attorneys refused to identify the second person.
That would have to be Bob Woodward's source, whom the blogosphere has narrowed down to Stephen Hadley or Richard Armitage. I'll go with Stephen Hadley.
Raw Story had an article earlier today stating that John Hannah, who reportedly has a cooperation deal with Fitzgerald, probably for immunity, told Fitz that Rove first learned of Valerie Plame Wilson (although not by her maiden name) from Scooter Libby -- not from reporters, as he first told investigators.
According to those familiar with the case and earlier reporting by RAW STORY, Fitzgerald had already obtained the cooperation of a key witness, former Deputy National Security Adviser for Vice President Dick Cheney, John Hannah. In February 2004, Hannah agreed to cooperate with Fitzgerald when the special prosecutor uncovered evidence tying Hannah to the leak and threatened to indict him, the sources said.
Hannah gave Fitzgerald the names of some White House officials who knew about Plame Wilson and disseminated her CIA status to reporters and other White House officials, the laywers said. One of the officials Hannah appears to have implicated was Rove, they added. Cheney promoted Hannah to be his assistant national security adviser following Libby’s indictment.
Cheney would not be stupid enough to promote Hannah if he remained in legal jeopardy from Fitz. Same goes for David Addington. So, I'll speculate that both got immunity.
Raw Story also says:
Rove failed to tell investigators at the time that he had spoken about Plame to Time Magazine reporter Matthew Cooper and conservative columnist Robert Novak, both of whom later cooperated in the case. Novak outed Plame in a July 14, 2003 column.
Mini-recap:
- Kristof op-ed appears on May 6
- Pincus article appears on June 12
- By June 12, Libby had learned of Wilson and his wife from the undersecretary at State, a top CIA official and Cheney.
- Wilson writes his NYTop-ed on July 6
- Libby told Ari Fleisher on July 7
- Classfied Memo faxed to AF One on July 7
- Rove spoke to Novak on July 8. Novak tells Rove about Plame. Rove says, "I heard that too."
- Rove tells Cooper about Wilson's wife on July 11
- Rove e-mails Hadley on July 11
- Libby flies to Charlotte, NC with Cheney and Catherine Martin on July 12 and discussion ensues on how to respond to Joseph Wilson's claims
- Libby talks to Cooper on July 12
- Novak's article comes out on July 14
As for those things we don't yet know:
- We don't know who made deals with Fitzgerald for immunity and who, if anyone, made a deal to plead guilty.
- We don't know what Fitzgerald knows about or from people like George Tenet, Colin Powell, Stephen Hadley and Richard Armitage and those who worked at the White House, like Catherine Martin and Susan Ralston.
- We don't know the identity of the sources for Robert Novak, Walter Pincus and Bob Woodward.
No matter which way I slice it, it seems Luskin needed to pull one more rabbit out of his hat at the 11th hour. Either his grand jury testimony did it, or Viveca buried Rove.
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