Birmingham Blues

Patrick Fitzgerald met today with the grand jury and the chief judge in the Plame leak case.

WASHINGTON - The prosecutor in the CIA leak probe set the stage Wednesday for possible criminal charges, meeting with the grand jury that heard months of testimony and then consulting with the chief judge at the courthouse where the legal drama has unfolded.

The White House braced for at least one indictment by week’s end, possibly Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby. It also was worried that President Bush’s top political adviser, Karl Rove, remained in jeopardy of being charged with false statements.

Rove’s legal team made contingency plans just in case, consulting with former Justice Department official Mark Corallo and GOP strategist Ed Gillespie to prepare a strategy for defending against an indictment in both court and the public.

Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald met with Rove attorney Robert Luskin at a private law firm office Tuesday, heightening White House fears for Rove’s future.

FBI agents working for Fitzgerald checked facts this week that could be used in a case, including whether Rove made any comments to a former colleague about his contact with one of the reporters who disclosed that Bush administration critic Joseph Wilson’s wife worked as an undercover CIA officer.

We may not see as many indictments as some expected, but this thing is way beyond the “criminalization of politics” (as opposed to the criminalization of sex during the Clinton years) that Republicans are whining about. Once the indictments are announced, the spin will be dizzying. Let’s keep our eye on the ball and keep the facts before the public.

If lying about a legal act is grounds for impeachment, then it’s pretty hard to claim that outing a covert CIA operative for political payback — and then lying about it — doesn’t rise to the same level. Bush may dodge this one, but I don’t see how Cheney can. Stay tuned.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 26th, 2005 at 9:21 pm and is filed under Stupid Conservative Tricks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.