{"id":7411,"date":"2006-05-15T11:11:23","date_gmt":"2006-05-15T15:11:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/?p=7411"},"modified":"2006-05-15T11:11:23","modified_gmt":"2006-05-15T15:11:23","slug":"rove-leopold-and-an-indicment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/rove-leopold-and-an-indicment\/","title":{"rendered":"Rove, Leopold, and an indicment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the weekend, Truthout’s [tag]Jason Leopold[\/tag] reported<\/a> that [tag]Karl Rove[\/tag] has, in fact, been [tag]indicted[\/tag] for [tag]perjury[\/tag] by [tag]Patrick Fitzgerald[\/tag]’s grand jury. I’m more than a little skeptical about the report, but it occurs to me that I should take a moment to explain why, instead of just ignoring the [tag]Truthout[\/tag] piece altogether.<\/p>\n

Obviously, this isn’t a question of what I hope<\/i> is true. A Rove indictment would be a stunning setback for the Bush White House and would be cause for celebration. (I especially hope it happens today, because it’d make a perfect birthday present.) At this point, however, I’m not prepared to believe the Truthout report, nor am I able to pass it along to readers as a credible news story with any confidence.<\/p>\n

For one thing, the New York Sun<\/a> and the National Review’s Byron York<\/a> have offered compelling reports indicating that the Leopold article is simply mistaken.<\/p>\n

“I talked with Rove defense spokesman [tag]Mark Corallo[\/tag], who told me the story was completely baseless. Part of our conversation: Did Patrick Fitzgerald come to [tag]Patton Boggs[\/tag] for 15 hours Friday? No. Did he come to Patton Boggs for any period of time Friday? No. Did he meet anywhere else with Karl Rove’s representatives? No. Did he communicate in any way with Karl Rove’s representatives? No. Did he inform Rove or Rove’s representatives that Rove had been indicted? No.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yes, these are conservative news outlets, but there are some basic facts at play. The Leopold article says Fitzgerald was at Rove’s attorneys’ office on Friday. The Sun says Fitzgerald was in Chicago on Friday. It’s a pretty straightforward question. If Leopold is wrong about this, the rest of his conclusions are obviously suspect.<\/p>\n

Second, as Mark Kleiman asked<\/a>, “Who [at the Bush White House] would have told Jason Leopold, but no reporter with a mass outlet, that Rove had been indicted?” It’s a perfectly reasonable question. Say what you will about the [tag]White House[\/tag] press corps, but literally dozens of top-tier professional journalists cover the president every day, and it’s very difficult to believe that one Truthout reporter has insider access that no one else has.
\n
\nAnd as my friend Peter Daou noted<\/a> today,<\/p>\n

From everything we’ve seen in public reports, it’s very possible Rove will indeed be indicted this week. In fact it’s looking more and more likely he will be. What was done to Valerie and Joe Wilson is a travesty and there will be justified celebration across America if Patrick Fitzgerald brings everyone who was involved in this repugnant and dangerous act to justice. Nevertheless, something just isn’t adding up.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

No, it isn’t. If Leopold’s right, I’ll be thrilled. In fact, Rove may very well be indicted, even if the Truthout piece is complete fiction. But until there’s some additional confirmation, this scoop has “caveat emptor” written all over it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over the weekend, Truthout’s [tag]Jason Leopold[\/tag] reported that [tag]Karl Rove[\/tag] has, in fact, been [tag]indicted[\/tag] for [tag]perjury[\/tag] by [tag]Patrick Fitzgerald[\/tag]’s grand jury. I’m more than a little skeptical about the report, but it occurs to me that I should take a moment to explain why, instead of just ignoring the [tag]Truthout[\/tag] piece altogether. Obviously, this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7411\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}