A case study on how to keep a political world in suspense

What’s the latest from the Plame scandal from the last 12 hours?

* The WaPo noted that Patrick Fitzgerald “presented a summary of his case to a federal grand jury yesterday and is expected to announce a final decision on charges tomorrow.”

* The Post also reported that Karl Rove’s legal team “has been engaged in a furious effort to convince the prosecutor that Rove did not commit perjury during the course of the investigation.” According to people close to Rove, he still doesn’t officially know whether he will be indicted.

* There’s ample speculation about Fitzgerald’s post-session, 45-minute meeting with Judge Thomas Hogan yesterday. The court confirmed that the meeting took place in chambers. CBS News said Fitzgerald was not asking for a grand jury extension during his meeting with the federal judge.

* The LA Times runs down the possible reasons for the Fitzgerald-Hogan discussion, including Hogan agreeing to seal an indictment, Hogan receiving advance notice of a major planned public announcement, and or a request for another grand jury.

* Time magazine’s Mike Allen said last night that it’s “likely” that Fitzgerald got some indictments yesterday and will use them as leverage. “What I’m told is typically, in a case like this, he could get the indictments and now he can go to the targets and say, ‘You can plead to these or I’ll go back Friday and get more. You have 12 to 24 hours to think about it. I can add a bunch of counts. You can take a couple of counts or we can do a bunch more.'”

* Steve Clemons learned that Fitzgerald, in addition to starting a new website, just signed a DC lease for expanded office space. As Clemons put it, “More office space needed to shut down the operation? I think not.” (Update: Never mind — Clemons’ source has retracted.)

* And on a lighter note, Slate’s Tim Noah had a funny one about news outlets running Plame-related stories that, unfortunately, are “content-free and utterly useless except as a sign that newspapers are very anxious to learn what will happen.”

Ack – the suspense! Does he know what he’s doing to half the nation?

  • Sorry for the off-topic post, but I can hardly contain my glee at the news that Miers has withdrawn her name from consideration for the Supreme Court.

    Conservative, Liberal, or whatever, we deserve competent people in government, so everyone should be heartened by this news (and ready to take a good, hard look at the next nominee).

  • I read this last, instead of first. Looks
    bad now. No extension or new grand
    jury means he doesn’t have spit in
    terms of going after the real crime.

    This is going to be a big letdown. I
    sure hope in the tradition of politics,
    he gets the bad news out tomorrow
    afternoon, so all the remaining
    hopefuls don’t heart attacks over
    the weekend.

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