Karl Rove Won't Be
Charged in CIA Leak Case
By Fred Barbash and
Jim VandeHei, washingtonpost.com June 13, 2006
Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald
has told White House aide Karl Rove that he does not expect to seek charges
against him in connection with the CIA leak case, Rove's lawyer said today.
In a statement this morning, Robert Luskin, Rove's attorney, said that
Fitzgerald "has formally advised us that he does not anticipate seeking charges"
against Rove.
"In deference to the pending case, we will not make any further public
statements about the subject matter of the investigation," Luskin said in the
statement. "We believe that the Special Counsel's decision should put an
end to the baseless speculation about Mr. Rove's conduct."
In a brief phone interview, Luskin said that Rove was "delighted, obviously. ...
We've always said he [Rove] did everything he could to cooperate" with the
investigation being conducted by Fitzgerald. "At the end of the day, he
made a determination on the evidence."
An indictment of Rove, the president's closest adviser and Deputy Chief of
Staff, would have been devastating to an administration already on the political
ropes and probably would have had significant repercussions in the upcoming
mid-term congressional elections, in which the GOP continues to labor against
images of a corrupt Congress.
Uncertainty about Rove's fate in the probe had been hanging over the White House
for months.
Fitzgerald's office declined to comment this morning. The decision not to
indict Rove leaves I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby as the only accused person in the
CIA-leak case. Libby has been charged with perjury, making false
statements and obstruction of justice. No one has been charged with the
actual leak.
Fitzgerald began his investigation 2 1/2 years ago, looking into whether any
administration officials knowingly disclosed the identity of undercover CIA
officer Valerie Plame in an effort to discredit her husband, former ambassador
Joseph C. Wilson, Jr. The former diplomat had been sent on a CIA mission
to investigate whether Iraq had sought nuclear weapons material from the African
nation of Niger.
Wilson reported back that the charge could not be proved, but Bush nevertheless
asserted in his 2003 State of the Union address that intelligence existed that
Iraq had tried to buy uranium in Africa. After Wilson went public with his
allegation a few months later, an embarrassed White House was forced to concede
that the Africa claim was not based on solid enough evidence.
Fitzgerald, sources have said, was exploring whether Rove testified falsely in
February 2004 when he failed to disclose that he told a Time magazine reporter
about Plame's CIA role seven months earlier.
In subsequent grand jury appearances, Rove essentially argued that he did not
recall the conversation with the Time reporter, Matthew Cooper, until a few
months after he first testified, when his attorney found a 2003 e-mail Rove had
written to then deputy national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley.
This statement today was topic number one on the morning news shows.
"The fact is this, I thought it was wrong when you had people like Howard Dean
and [Sen.] Harry Reid presuming that he was guilty," Republican Party Chairman
Ken Mehlman told Fox News Channel's "Fox and Friends" show Tuesday morning.
"He doesn't belong in the White House," Dean said. "If the president
valued America more than he valued his connection to Karl Rove, Karl Rove would
have been fired a long time ago," said the Democratic Party chairman, speaking n
NBC's "Today" show. "So I think this is probably good news for the White
House, but it's not very good news for America."
Speculation about Rove's fate has hung over the White House for months, fueled
by repeated appearances by Rove before the Federal grand jury investigating the
CIA leak.
One Website even reported without attribution that Fitzgerald had already
obtained a secret indictment against Rove.
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