Plame Gossip Fix.

Thanks to Jason for his excellent reporting, best on Plame by far, and to Greyhair(note the new address) for pointing me to this piece. There are some interesting possibilities here arising from a possible Rove plea deal. (Truthout, Jan 10, 2006)

Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is said to have spent the past month preparing evidence he will present to a grand jury alleging that White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove knowingly made false statements to FBI and Justice Department investigators and lied under oath while he was being questioned about his role in the leak of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame's identity more than two years ago, according to sources knowledgeable about the probe......

But sources knowledgeable about the case against Rove say that he was offered a plea deal in December and that Luskin had twice met with Fitzgerald during that time to discuss Rove's legal status. Rove turned down the plea deal, which would likely have required him to provide Fitzgerald with information against other officials who were involved in Plame's outing as well as testifying against those people, the sources said......

Luskin said. "I am not acknowledging that it did or didn't happen, I am just saying that I have never commented about that before and I am not going to start doing that now."

Ooooh, that feels soooo gooooood. My evil, dark Plame mistress how I've missed you.

A quick read tells me that Fitzgerald is still prepping the case, looks very likely to present for indictment, but that it's not a simple slam dunk. Not revelatory, but it shows a little more caution than I was previously reading.

Also, I find it interesting that Rove turned down a plea deal. Several possibilities: Either the punishment terms were still to severe for Rove to accept, perhaps Fitzgerald refused to take jailtime off the table, Rove was too loyal(?) to give up the other people Fitzgerald wants to pursue in this matter, or Rove thinks he's better off rolling the dice as to whether he will be indicted or convicted.

But be sure, that to me, the big revelation in this is that Fitzgerald was looking at a plea deal which would involve Rove providing information and, eventually, testimony against "other officials who were involved. First, this means that Rove may very well not be the end of this investigation.

And second, just who, on what crimes, would be worth cutting a deal with Rove? Really, there are only two people higher than Rove in the structure, so if Fitzgerald is following the "bigger fish" prosecutorial model we have just two possible candidates. Fitzgerald could also be looking to wrap up an entire conspiracy, I prefer the phrase "criminal enterprise," which could consist of a number of people below Rove's status, but wrap up all of them, completing the investigation.

It could also be someone lower down the chain who committed a far more heinous crime of some sort, although we've seen no evidence of anyone doing so in relation to the Plame case.

Or Fitzgerald might have just been throwing the option of a plea deal open, not offering too much, but taking a chance that Rove might be willing to turn on others, simplifying the endgame of the investigation.

No real answers at this point, but the fact that Luskin met with Fitzgerald on two occasions indicates an offer, counter offer situation, so the terms of the deal were close enough for a little face to face discussion. This may be why Fitzgerald has been "going slow" since the new year; he may be waiting to see if Luskin/Rove come back to the table.

And, it looks unlikely, but if Rove does cut a deal, even if it's limited to information only related to Plame, it will throw gasoline on the fire, others will be brought in, and Libby will certainly get convicted. I think at that point, we will then be back to discussing the "underlying crime."

How strange would it be if all of this so far has just been the first act, establishing pressure points with which to guarantee testimony to go after the actual outing of Plame? If that's what's happening, we may be watching one of the most brilliant prosecutions of our day.

If that's what happens, I suggest we call it Comey's revenge.

(By the way, take a minute to appreciate that Jason Leopold, a guy with a pretty good media background, has been scooping the NYTimes, the Wapo, and all the networks repeatedly while working more or less on his own. The power of the internet, the power of one person.)

(Sorry, I went on and on, but it's been awhile, and for some reason this case is my dark pleasure. Somewhere in it, there is something which makes it irresistible to me.)

UPDATE: Talkleft is theorizing that a deal will be worked out and that the sticking points are testifying in court against others and/or the charges he will plead to. Just guesses like everybody else.

Was this leak leaked to move the negotiations forward? - Mike