WASHINGTON, 8 October 2005 — President Bush’s chief political adviser, Karl Rove, once referred to as “Bush’s Brain,” is in serious trouble. On Thursday he was notified that he must testify again before a grand jury investigating the leak of a CIA officer’s name.
Legal experts say Rove’s upcoming fourth testimony is a risky legal move because it opens him up to making statements that are inconsistent with what he previously has said.
About a week ago, Rove offered to return and answer any questions by the grand jury — a highly unusual action for a person who has any risk of being indicted in a white-collar criminal case, say veteran defense lawyers. One added that it was “desperate legal move” by Rove’s defense lawyers.
Lawyers involved in the case say they are increasingly convinced that the prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, could be preparing to charge someone with a crime for discussing with journalists the identity of undercover CIA agent Valerie Plame, and will use the remaining days before the grand jury expires on Oct. 28 to decide.
While the outcome of the criminal investigation is uncertain for Rove, the legal status of another key figure, Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, also remains unknown.
Last Friday, New York Times reporter Judith Miller testified about her conversations with Libby, while Time magazine reporter Matt Cooper testified in 2003 about a conversation with Libby and in July about a conversation with Rove.
Miller’s testimony came after she spent 85 days in jail for refusing to cooperate with Fitzgerald’s probe.
Nor does it appear that Fitzgerald is not entirely finished with Miller. He has reportedly asked Miller to meet him next Tuesday to further discuss her conversations with Libby.
At issue are the conversations both Rove and Libby held with reporters in July 2003 regarding the identity of Plame days after her husband, former US Ambassador Joseph Wilson, suggested the Bush administration had misrepresented prewar intelligence on Iraq.
Leaking the identity of a covert agent can be a crime, but it must be done knowingly and the legal threshold for proving such a crime is high. Observers believe Fitzgerald may additionally seek charges against anyone he thinks lied to investigators or tried to obstruct the case.
After speaking with Miller, observers say Fitzgerald may now suspect that Rove may in some way be implicated in the revelation of Valerie Plame’s identity, or that he is investigating various people for obstruction of justice, false statements or perjury.
The Rove/Libby White House drama has become an obsessive topic of conversation in Washington.
“It’s hard to tell what’s going on from the outside, because this administration is so secretive,” a State Department official told Arab News on background. “But it’s clear the Bush Administration is going through a very bad patch.
“What’s very interesting about all this — is that it involves the huge issue of lying about the reasons of going to war in Iraq. Because at issue is the Iraq ‘Weapons of Mass Destruction’ question, and the attempt to discredit Wilson is involved in that. So it’s not just the issue of the administration releasing the name of a CIA agent, it involves the larger issue of discrediting the critics of why we went to war.”
