Robert Luskin, Karl Rove’s attorney, is fond of telling reporters that prosecutors in the Plame scandal told him that Rove is not a “target” of the inquiry. Regardless of the debate between the meanings of “target” and “subject” in the context of prosecutorial interest, Patrick Fitzgerald’s team sure does seem interested in Rove now.
To its credit, ABC News staked out the Plame grand jury late last week, just to see who was going in to testify. (Why other media outlets didn’t think to do this is a mystery to me.) So, who appeared? The Note has the scoop.
Based on ABC News sources (and our own video camera) it appears that at least two witnesses testified before the grand jury last Friday, both close associates of Karl Rove.
ABC News has learned that one was Susan Ralston, Rove’s long-time right hand. The other, per ABC News’ Jake Tapper, was Israel “Izzy” Hernandez, Rove’s former left hand (and now a top Commerce Department official). It isn’t clear if either had been asked to testify before last week.
The conventional wisdom held that Fitzgerald’s investigation had more or less wrapped up months ago and he was simply waiting to see if he could get testimony from Judith Miller and Matt Cooper. The fact that the grand jury heard from two of Rove’s top deputies just four days ago clearly tells us that Fitzgerald’s probe is not only ongoing, but continues to collect new information.
It also reinforces the notion that the investigation continues to focus in on one person: Karl “Turd Blossom” Rove.