More Plame Gossip

This is from Raw Story who has batted a little over .500 on the Plame story, so takes this as interesting but suspect. It alleges that Fitzgerald "received additional testimony" from Susan Ralston( as reported on Nov. 10) "that Rove instructed her not to log a phone call Rove had with Cooper about Plame in July 2003." IF true, that's pretty damning for Rove.

I would consider this pretty solid:

Those close to the investigation say Fitzgerald will present evidence to the grand jury later this week obtained from other witnesses who were interviewed by the Special Prosecutor or testified, showing that Rove made misleading statements to Justice Department and FBI investigators in an attempt to cover-up his role in the leak when he was first interviewed about it in October 2003.

The most serious charges Rove appears to face are making false statements to investigators and obstruction of justice, the sources said.

But this? .....

Two things are clear, the sources said: either Rove will agree to enter into a plea deal with Fitzgerald or he will be charged with a crime, but he will not be exonerated for the role he played in the leak.

If Rove does agree to a plea, Fitzgerald is not expected to discuss any aspect of his probe into the President’s senior adviser because Rove may be called to testify as a prosecution witness against I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney.

So, big grains of salt, maybe, maybe. But the investigation is obviously moving along. No new evidence here or in the other recent news stories that anybody besides Rove is under immediate investigation. And it seems to appear that we may have more public action before Christmas.

UPDATE: On the Viveca Novak deposition, Jeralyn is hypothesizing that V. Novak might have, knowingly or unknowingly, acted as a conduit between Rove/Luskin and Cooper regarding who said what to the Grand Jury. If true, that's bad.