RAW STORY
Published: Friday April 28, 2006
The latest Rove update, which ran at 5pm on MSNBC Friday evening, confirms RAW STORY's earlier report that Rove's lawyers have been told no decision will be made for at least another week on whether Rove will face indictment over potential perjury.
The report, filed by Hardball's David Shuster, follows.
To read yesterday's report, in which Rove was quoted as saying his three and a half hour interrogation by the grand jury was "hell," click here.
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David Shuster: "For Karl Rove, the drama is going to continue for a while. Sources close to Rove say his legal team has been told by prosecutors that no indictment decision will be made for at least another week. It means that even though Rove on Wednesday answered questions for three and a half hours, prosecutors are still unwilling to clear him or signal that his answers satisifed the grand jury.
Scott Fredericksen, former independent counsel: "The fact is, this is high risk strategy. But if Mr. Rove had said, I'm not going in there for a 5th time, I think that would have been a guarantee of an indictment."
Rove's own lawyers say the key issue is Rove's failure, for the first ten months of the investigation, to acknowledge that he spoke with Time magazine's Matt Cooper about former CIA operative Valerie Wilson. Rove sources tell MSNBC the presidential advisor testified again this week he has little memory of the Cooper conversation and argued that any mis-statements the last two years were not intentional. Last summer, following an appearance where Rove testified that most of their conversation was about welfare reform, Matt Cooper testified the entire discussesion was about the Wilsons and that Rove ended the call by saying, I've already said too much.
Matt Cooper: "I thought maybe he meant, I've been indiscreet, but then as I thought about it, I thought it might just be more benign like, I've said too much, I've got to get to a meeting. I don't know exactly what he meant, but I do know the memory of that line has stayed in my head for two years."
Last fall, when prosecutors indicted Vice President Cheney's chief of staff Scooter Libby, they held off indicting Rove because his attorney said there was evidence that would prove Rove did not intend to mislead investigators. But based on the apparent scope of Wednesday's grand jury session, there are still questions about what prompted Rove to update his testimony.
That testimony came more than seven months after Rove's lawyer got a tip from Time magazine's Viveca Novak about what Cooper might say. On the other hand, Rove's testimony came just three days after prosecutors first ordered Cooper to testify. Legal experts suggest prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald may be returning to the theory that Rove held off disclosing information until he realized there would be reporter testimony against him under oath.
Sol Wisenberg, former federal prosecutor: "Any time your client has been identified as a subject and has gone to the grand jury five times, and the last time is three-and-a-half hours, you have a lot to worry about."
Another area of potential concern for Karl Rove involves an issue raised by pleadings in the Scooter Libby case. Prosecutors allege that Libby coordinated some of his actions with other white house officials including Rove. Rove is part of the prosecution narrative against Libby. And one document alleges Libby tried to mislead or confuse investigators by testifying he had a conversation with a reporter when the evidence shows it was Rove who had the conversation with the reporter.
Did Libby and Rove coordinate their testimony? And what does it mean for the overall investigation? In court documents, Fitzgerald says the investigation remains active.
And legal experts point out the big danger for Karl Rove is that the grand jury may have evidence Rove is not aware of. The only player in this drama who knows for sure is Fitzgerald -- who declined to clear Rove following his testimony and would only tell Rove's legal team that a decision on the presidential advisor will take at least ten days. I'm David Shuster, for Hardball, in Washington.
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