Digby has two fabulous guest bloggers this weekend - Jane Hamsher of FireDogLake and Tristero. Jane's RoveGate writing has been top notch.

Two more RoveGate bloggers to read every day: Tom Maguire of Just One Minute and Empty Wheel of The Next Hurrah. [Addition: Needlenose is another one.]

Regarding Karl Rove, this blast from the past by Murray Waas that appeared in the March 4, 2004 American Prospect is well worth re-reading:

Murray Waas has a new RoveGate article today at National Journal (free link). He adds another aspect: Did Rove intentionally mislead Bush and could that be a crime in itself?

In his own interview with prosecutors on June 24, 2004, Bush testified that Rove assured him he had not disclosed Plame as a CIA employee and had said nothing to the press to discredit Wilson, according to sources familiar with the president's interview. Bush said that Rove never mentioned the conversation with Cooper. James E. Sharp, Bush's private attorney, who was present at the president's interview with prosecutors, declined to comment for this story.

Uh-oh. For Scooter Libby. Reuters reports that Judith Miller has found and turned over notes on an earlier conversation from June, 2003 with Scooter Libby.

Miller's notes about a June 2003 conversation with Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, could be important to prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's case by establishing exactly when Libby and other administration officials first started talking to reporters about CIA operative Valerie Plame and her diplomat husband, Joseph Wilson.

What else happened in June, 2003? One thing is the classified State Department memo that mentioned Valerie Plame. WAPO reported

Murray Waas has the latest on Karl Rove's next grand jury appearance - it's tomorrow morning. As I speculated here, he will:

• Try to explain his previous mistatements or as Murray puts it, why his statements have evolved and changed over time
• Try to explain the discrepancies between his and Matthew Cooper's version of the their conversations

And Murray adds a third one:

He will also be questioned regarding contacts with other senior administration officials, such as then-deputy National Security advisor Stephen J. Hadley and I. Lewis Libby, the chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney in the critical week before the publication of columnist Robert Novak's column on July 14, 2003, which outed Plame as a covert CIA operative.

David Corn weighs in here.

Lawrence O'Donnell has updated his Huffpo post to comment on how cagey Rove's lawyer is being when he said today Rove hadn't received a letter informing him he was a target. He's right.

I laid out the terminology of "target letters" earlier. It may be worth noting (as appellate whiz Peter G. pointed out in the comments to the post)that it is not not a legal requirement, only Justice Department policy, that target letters be sent to those whom the Government subpoenas to the grand jury while also intending to indict them.

Rove's lawyer asked for his client to testify again. Rove wasn't subpoenaed. Plus, Fitzgerald could have told him over the phone that if his client testifies again, he can't assure him he won't be indicted. And not sending a target letter doesn't mean Fitz won't advise Rove of his rights orally when he goes before the grand jury again.

Update: The AP reports Karl Rove will testify again in the leaks probe. One last chance to avoid indictment?

Federal prosecutors have accepted an offer from presidential adviser Karl Rove to give 11th hour testimony in the case of a CIA officer's leaked identity but have warned they cannot guarantee he won't be indicted, according to people directly familiar with the investigation.

Update: More details here.

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Original Post:

Over at HuffPo, Lawrence O'Donnell predicts at least three indictments of high-level White House officials. He says Fitz will tell the defense lawyers they have one more chance to come in, rat out others and make a deal.

Rove's lawyer Robert Luskin won't confirm to O'Donnell whether he's been notified by Fitzgerald that he is soon to be an Indictee. Which means, Rove could already be working out a deal or otherwise trying to resolve the charges pre-Indictment. Or, Rove hasn't decided what to do so he's staying quiet until then.

I'm beginning to see some people, including at least one news service, misapply the term "target letter." Just so it's clear, a "target letter" is what the prosecutor provides to a witness who has been subpoenaed to testify before the grand jury. It is an advisement of rights, particularly the right to counsel and the right to not testify.

Once the investigation is complete and the grand jury has heard all the evidence and is about to return Indictments, target letters are no longer used. [ Addition by LNILR: They are not re-issued everytime a witness/target comes in. Any competent defense lawyer has already met with the prosecutor to learn the client's status and role in the alleged offense under investigation. Target letters go out after the targets and subjects are identified by the prosecutor and investigators. The investigation may be years old before target letters go out. A "target letter" is just what it implies: You are likely going to be indicted, and you better act accordingly.]

Once an indictment is returned, the Prosecutor may notify the lawyer for the indicted person to make agreements on whether a summons will issue or arrest warrants, and, if it's going to be an arrest warrant, whether the person will be allowed to surrender at the courthouse or FBI office rather than be arrested at home or at work and bail amounts can be agreed upon. At this point, the case is past the "target letter" stage. The notification of indictment and arranging surrender can be formal (by letter) or by a telephone call.

Bump and Update: The DC Rumor Mill says 22 Indictments are about to be handed down in the Plame investigation:

The D.C. Rumor mill is thrumming with whispers that 22 indictments are about to be handed down on the outed-CIA agent Valerie Plame case. The last time the wires buzzed this loud — that Tom DeLay would be indicted and would step down from his leadership post in the House — the scuttlebutters got it right.

Can it be a coincidence that the White House appears to be distancing President Bush from embattled aide Karl Rove? “He’s been missing in action at more than one major presidential event,” a member of the White House press corps tells us.

And just in time, Arianna has a new Judy Miller blog roundup.

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Original Post:

Daily Kos and AmericaBlog say Karl Rove has been absent from many recent White House events and wonder why. Is he expecting bad news from Fitzgerald and being put in time out so Bush can distance himself from him?

New York Times reporter Judith Miller gave her first post-jail interview last night to Lou Dobbs on CNN. Crooks and Liars has the video.

Here's Judy the martyr (from the transcript, available on Lexis.com):

You know, Lou, I knew and I know they wasn't covering for anybody. I was protecting the confidentiality of the source to whom I had given my word. I was keeping my word. And until I knew that that source genuinely wanted me to testify, and I heard that from him, I was willing to sit in jail. I didn't want to be in jail, but I knew that the principle of confidentiality was so important that I had to, because if people can't trust us to come to us to tell us the things that government and powerful corporations don't want us to know, we're dead in the water. The public won't know....That's why I was sitting in jail. For the public's right to know.

Here's something new: A copy of Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald's letter(pdf) to Libby's lawyer Joseph Tate, dated September 12, 2005. [Via How Appealing.] Some points from the letter, old and new:

• Libby was interviewed in October and November, 2003. He testified twice before the grand jury in 2004.
• Libby testified about his recollection of conversations with Judith Miller that occurred during their July 8 meeting and their July 12 phone call.
• Libby was the indiviual specified as "an identified government official" in Miller's subpoena.
• Fitzgerald assumed Miller remained in jail either in spite of the subpoena or because Libby thought it was not in his best interest to encourage her to testify.
• As a result of reading recent press articles, he now thinks there might have been a communication between Libby and Miller regarding the waiver.
• He wants Libby to know that he can reach out to Miller and assure her the waiver is valid and encourage her to testify and it will not be considered obstructive conduct.

Michael Isikoff reports that Joseph Tate, Libby's lawyer, says Libby did not speak to Novak. Also, the call between Libby and Miller in jail was a four-way conference call with both their lawyers on the call.

Isikoff also reports that Fitzgerald was ready to extend the grand jury for another term, which could have left Miller in jail for up to another 18 months, even without a criminal contempt charge.

Libby's defense remains:

Tate acknowledges that Libby did indeed tell Miller that Iraq war critic Joe Wilson's wife (Plame) had arranged for Wilson to take a CIA-sponsored trip to Africa to probe reports that Iraq was seeking uranium for a nuclear bomb. But he says Libby did not know Plame's real name nor her undercover status at the CIA.

As I wrote in an overly long post earlier, I think the signs point to no indictments for leaking Plame's identity but possible indictments for perjury, making false statements to federal officials, obstruction of justice and some kind of conspiracy charge.

Think Progress reports:

Near the end of a round table discussion on ABC's This Week, George Stephanopoulos dropped this bomb:

"Definitely a political problem but I wonder, George Will, do you think it's a manageable one for the White House especially if we don't know whether Fitzgerald is going to write a report or have indictments but if he is able to show as a source close to this told me this week, that President Bush and Vice President Cheney were actually involved in some of these discussions."

Crooks and Liars has the video.