Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald has told White House aide Karl Rove that he does not expect to seek charges against him in connnection with the CIA leak case, Rove’s lawyer said today.
In a statement this morning, Robert Luskin, Rove’s attorney, said that Fitzgerald “has formally advised us that he does not anticipate seeking charges” against Rove.
“In deference to the pending case, we will not make any further public statements about the subject matter of the investigation,” Luskin said in the statement. “We believe that the Special Counsel’s decision should put an end to the baseless speculation about Mr. Rove’s conduct.”
So much for Fitzmas.
Yes, this sucks.
Life will go on.
I just heard this. It does suck.
Please tell me that he expects to be way too busy prosecuting the vice president to waste his time on turdblossom.
Damn, man…the grinch who who stole Fitzmas.
Carry on. Plenty of work to do.
this may mean that Rove rolled over and has become a witness for the prosecution, i.e., against Cheney. That would save his ass and protect his boy, Bush by putting the blame on the VP. I bet Condi wants to be VP.
I know this idea is feeble but it’s better than thinking the Fitz investigation has just been another ring at the circus.
I wish I could have felt disappointment at this, but I can’t, because I am so old and cynical (realistic?) I had no illusions that there would ever really be a Fitzmas. Given how things are now it seems, and apparetnly was,logistically impossibe, in a power structure this heavily weighted at the top.
I try to be content with potential fantasies that may be enacted on some other plane, someday.
Like, if there really IS a “heaven”, and if they really DO have any decent intel and security present at the Pearly Gates, Rove, and others of his ilk, will not only be denied a golden crown and a place at the feet of any diety, they will be ass-tossed onto a fast light rail and taken straight to the bowels of some kind of hell.
In May I wrote this about Fitzgerald:
The real tragedy is that many in the liberal community depended on someone like Fitzgerald to help clean up Washington. Fitz was never that guy.
But worse, it was yet another example of Democrats avoiding the tough decisions, avoiding developing their own agenda and their own message, For months, the leading blogs promoted the idea that all Democrats need do is point out the corruption of the Republicans.
Democrats go into November rudderless, without a proven winning strategy. Rove will continue to lead the Republican reelection efforts — knowing that he will do everything in his power including breaking the law, you’ve got to like their chances of retaining both houses.
Aren’t you folks USED to this shit yet?
As far as the Teflonicrats in power are concerned, the proper title for this diary should be Reality Extruded.
Or perhaps Shit Doesn’t Happen.
They have once again created a new reality.
The only good news in this is that each and every time that they DO create a new reality, the energies that they use to power their cloaking devices are further depleted. Each time…from the 2000 vote theft right on through this one…the requirements get a little higher for them to be able to teflon on through.
The aim of the opposition is always just a little more centered in on the bullseye.
The I Ching teaches us that evil always and forever consumes itself.
Patience.
It comes.
AG
and having just taken delivery of a steaming, stinking pile of organic fertilizer, I am now going to go out and start looking around, because it’s obvious someone just delivered me a pony and I just have to find it.
This post is pure beauty. Thanks for the laugh, Omir.
Given that this story comes straight from the mouth of Rove’s lawyer, I’m not going to draw any conclusions about what it means until we all hear hear from Fitzgerald that the fat lady is singing.
That seems to be sort of the thought at firedoglake.
I hope this means Fitz is going after Cheney, and Karl cooperated, but who knows? Will this administration ever be held accountable for their misdeeds?
That’s exactly where I went first thing this am when I heard it on TV. But I’ll be anxious to hear Boo’s take on this development. I know he’s busy in DC, but he just has to write about this story, don’t you think?
Yeah, I want to hear his take too.
Can we put Cheney’s sneer on the frog-march frog?
Far too much time on the so-called “left” of the blogosphere has been spent with folks dreaming of the GOP being indicted out of power, becoming so unpopular that people will flood to the polls and voted for anything else (ABB anyone?), or will simply quit in disgust.
It’s not gonna happen.
Somebody has to provide voters with a clear, positive, alternative vision. That vision may or may not be progressive. If we want to to be progressive, we’ve got to fight for it to be.
Emptywheel has a diary up on Big Orange that’s worth reading even if you have an allergy to all things Kosmopolitan. The gist of it is that Bush’s people in the White House think Cheney is the anchor that’s dragging down the Bush misadministration and they are trying to find a way to force him out. An indictment from the Special Prosecutor would do it.
It makes sense; look at the really big missteps of the past five years — Iraq, secret energy panels, you name it — and Cheney’s fingerprints are all over them. Like emptywheel says, if they can get Cheney out they can claim that they’re making a fresh start. Ludicrous, I know, but we all know ludicrous is one of the things the current misadministration does best. I’d even be willing to have Condi as vice president if it would mean Cheney were sent permanently to his undisclosed location.
“Good news for the White House, not so good news for America”-Howard Dean on the Today show this morning, from MSNBC. I’m looking for the transcript to appear because he said some other things about Rove and the White House.
Jason Leopold is still saying that the “the grand jury empanelled in the case returned an indictment that was filed under seal in US District Court for the District of Columbia under the curious heading of Sealed vs. Sealed.” If that is a fact, then perhaps Mr. Fitzgerald has chosen not to proceed to file charges in this matter.
“He doesn’t belong in the White House. If the president valued America more than he valued his connection to Karl Rove, Karl Rove would have been fired a long time ago,” said Dean, the Democratic Party chairman, speaking Tuesday on NBC’s “Today” show.-from the AP story.
Peter Daou has a good roundup of Rove-related reactions here and here.
Notable that Johnston doesn’t write that Rove has been cleared of all charges. does not anticipate seeking charges isn’t the same as won’t. It leaves a door open.
JOhnston gets one item wrong when he writes effectively ending the nearly three-year criminal investigation. If that were the case, we’d hear it from Fitzgerald — the investigation is still open as Luskin makes clear when he declines further comment.
Co-operating witness perhaps?
Joe Wilson statement:
Last night before retiring, I read what Rove said about Democrats in a speech at a New Hampshire fundraising dinner earlier in the evening, and wrote this. But it failed to quiet my fury, which spurred this revelation. I couldn’t sleep until I wrote it all down.
Then I really couldn’t sleep.
Imagine my surprise (shock) when I heard the news today. All that was left to write was this.
Prescient, maybe. It’s happened before, but I think it comes more from my cynical distrust of people. Republican people.
I saw this coming about a month ago.
Unlike many in the left blogosphere, I’ve never been enamored of Pat Fitzgerald. And in this time where we can’t even get Democrats to act like menches and represent the people’s interests, I certainly don’t expect it from a Republican prosecutor in Al Gonzalez’ DOJ.
I guess I’ll sleep come the revolution.