The Fate of Officials 'A'
From MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann:
And, as fans of Illinois politics and Patrick Fitzgerald's investigations know, our own dear Governor Blagojevich has been tagged to as “Official A.”OLBERMANN: First off, the baseline here. Has the status of the Fitzgerald grand jury changed? Has the status of Mr. Rove in the investigation process itself changed?
SHUSTER: Well, first, on the investigation, defense lawyers say that the grand jury investigation is active again, and that the panel has been meeting in recent weeks, although prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald was not seen at the grand jury this week and hasn‘t been seen there at some—for some time.
Now, regarding Karl Rove, the—according to the latest documents, for the first time, Rove is now described as a subject in the overall case, a subject being a technical term meaning that somebody is under investigation. And the latest prosecution documents also go out of their way to suggest that Rove is not going to be a prosecution witness at the Libby trial, even though Rove is part of the narrative against Scooter Libby.
And the reason that‘s significant is because prosecutors usually don‘t put subjects on the witness stand for tactical reasons if they want to leave open the possibility of later charging that particular subject in a separate case.
The other thing that has long been intriguing about Karl Rove, and that is, we‘ve known for months that in the Scooter Libby indictment, when they referred to official A, official A is Karl Rove. And the indictment against Libby says that official A disclosed to Scooter Libby that he had had a conversation with columnist Robert Novak.
The reason prosecutors describe an official as an official A is when there‘s pejorative information about that person, and the person has not yet been indicted and had a chance to defend themselves. But we‘ve looked at prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald‘s record as far as designating people as official A or official B, and in every single case we have found, Keith, that prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, when he designates somebody as official A in an indictment, that person eventually does get indicted themselves.
And that‘s why, I think, with everything coming together, there‘s so much intrigue tonight about Karl Rove.
Originally posted at The So-Called "Austin Mayor" blog
8 comments:
"The question is, does Mr. Fitzgerald know who the source was?" Novak asked. "Of course. He's known for years who the first source is. If he knows the source, why didn't he indict him? Because no crime was committed."
Novak talking at the Sun Times forum.
Maybe Fitz can trip up Rove on contradtictions in his testimony but his lawyers played Fitz far differently then Libby's did. Rove kept going back to testify and Libby kept stonewalling.
Novak also a classic on how to handle yourself in one of these investigations.
What abouat another A in the sucker state? What is going on with Lee Daniels? I bet he is not happy with the Ryan results.
Ba da da da da, I'm lovin it!
Bill,
I think at this point in time it is fair to say that Pat Fitzgerald isn't exactly a loose cannon.
70+ guilty pleas/verdicts in the License for Bribes scandal, 30+ guilty pleas in the Hired Truck scandal, the Cari guilty plea, the Duff convictions, the Tristano guilty plea, etc.
Based on Fitzgerald's track record in public corruption cases, undefeated, I don't know if I'd put all my money on Bob "I'll betray journalistic principles at the first sign of a subpoena" Novak.
In terms of Rove's legal team running circles around Fitz, remember all the pundits singing the praise of Dan Webb's brilliant defense of George Ryan? You know, the same George Ryan that is now convicted felon. At the end of the day the difference between Ryan and Rove will be who got convicted on more counts.
Yep, that Bob Novak has certainly exposed public corruption on a level comparable to Pat Fitzgerald. I agree that Novak is a classic, but not in the positive sense that you believe.
Novak is a classic in that he clearly talked... didn't plead the fifth... was open with Fitz... in otherwords he did the law abiding thing and then had the sense not to leak it.
Of course Fitz isn't a lose cannon. He knows who leaked first, Novak told him, and Fitz knows there is no crime here to prosecute.
All that's left are these purjury charges and the guy who's wide open is Libby because he handled Fitz all wrong, stone walled, and was not forthcoming with the GJ.
Rove's lawyers played it just the opposite.
You take a big risk when you go before a GJ in a case like this.
Normal folks would plead the fifth but that wasn't an option for Rove or Libby.
Libby stonewalled and Rove didn't and the difference shows.
And then, Libby chatted a lot with Ms. Miller. There is a lesson there for anyone in public life.
Co-schemer A is Victor Reyes.
Elected Official A is Rod Blagojevich.
BOTH are going down.
Tony Resko is who got Blagojevich to retain Stuart Levine, lots of money and fundraising going around.
If Stuart Levine starts yapping and ratting, Blagojevich is toast.
Resko is supposedly already cooperating with the Feds.
How can Rod Blagojevich, who has done so many good things, still be associating with HDO and Victor Reyes? They are corrupt to the bone and should not be in politics.
Post a Comment