The political world’s been waiting with baited breath today, wondering if Plame indictments will be issued. It looks like it won’t be today, because investigators still have a few questions for Karl Rove.
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.
The persons, who spoke only on condition of anonymity because of grand jury secrecy, said Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has not made any decision yet on whether to file criminal charges against the longtime confidant of President Bush or others.
The U.S. attorney’s manual requires prosecutors not to bring witnesses before a grand jury if there is a possibility of future criminal charges unless they are notified in advance that their grand jury testimony can be used against them in a later indictment.
Rove has already made at least three grand jury appearances and his return at this late stage in the investigation is unusual.
The prosecutor did not give Rove similar warnings before his earlier grand jury appearances.
Rove, it seems, is about this close to an indictment. Will Rove save himself with 11th hour testimony? Stay tuned.
Update: Salon’s Tim Grieve helps with some context to consider alongside this news.
So Karl Rove is returning to testify before the grand jury investigating the outing of Valerie Plame, and he’s doing so without any guarantee that Patrick Fitzgerald won’t prosecute him. How big of a development is this? “Stunning,” a former federal prosecutor tells us. “There is no reason for Rove to make this appearance unless he and his counsel believe he is at serious risk of indictment. None.”
It’s always risky to go before a grand jury. You can’t take your lawyer into the room with you, and you don’t know what the grand jury knows or doesn’t know. It’s especially risky if you’ve already testified once — or, in the case of Rove, three times — before: The odds of introducing inconsistencies into your testimony increase each time you give it. That’s why, the former prosecutor tells us, a defense lawyer would advise his client to make a return appearance before the grand jury only in extreme circumstances.
New York University law professor Stephen Gillers offers a similar assessment to the Associated Press. He calls Rove’s return trip to the grand jury room an “ominous sign” that suggests Fitzgerald “has learned new information that is tightening the noose” around Rove’s neck. “It shows Fitzgerald now, perhaps after [Judith] Miller’s testimony, suspects Rove may be in some way implicated in the revelation of Plame’s identity or that Fitzgerald is investigating various people for obstruction of justice, false statements or perjury. That is the menu of risk for Rove.”
Pass the popcorn.