There are a flurry of Plame-related program activities in the major dailies today, but some of the information is vaguely contradictory. With this in mind, it’s a little unclear what to expect, but one thing seems certain: I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby almost certainly won’t be a White House employee by the end of the day.
* The New York Times has the story of the day, citing lawyers in the case who expect Libby to be indicted today, charged with making false statements to the grand jury.
* The same NYT report added Karl Rove will not be charged today — but “will remain under investigation.” The Times added that this will mean that Patrick Fitzgerald will likely to extend the term of the federal grand jury beyond its scheduled expiration today.
* The Washington Post, however, cites “two legal sources” saying that Fitzgerald is “eager” not to extend this grand jury or empanel and a new one, and “would prefer to wrap up the case today.”
* The Wall Street Journal reported that Rove was informed yesterday evening that he “remains in legal jeopardy.” But ABC News adds this morning that Rove has been notified that he “will not be indicted today.”
* A GOP consultant with close White House ties said Chief of Staff Andrew Card has been focusing on how to react to the grand jury’s decisions. “These will be very, very dark days for the White House,” the consultant quoted Card as saying.
* Richard Sale reports that Libby first learned about Plame, not from Cheney as was reported this week, but by a phone call from the State Department. Sale isn’t certain about the name of the caller, but his sources said that the call “definitely came from the State Department office of John Bolton, then the arms control chief of the department.”
* Perhaps the one sentence in any story that warrants the most attention is this one from the NYT article: “As the clock ticked down on the grand jury, people involved in the investigation did not rule out the disclosure of previously unknown aspects of the case.”
In other words, we’ll all know something soon enough, but for right this minute, we don’t know what.