In my report the other morning after my accident, I mentioned that a prominent journalist had shared this:
My sense is that the Rove team is feeling more confident today, the Libby team despondent
This squares with the New York Times report this morning that Libby is up for indictment this morning — and Rove has missed the bullet for the time being:
Lawyers in the C.I.A. leak case said Thursday that they expected I. Lewis Libby Jr., Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, to be indicted on Friday, charged with making false statements to the grand jury.
Karl Rove, President Bush’s senior adviser and deputy chief of staff, will not be charged on Friday, but will remain under investigation, people briefed officially about the case said. As a result, they said, the special counsel in the case, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, was likely to extend the term of the federal grand jury beyond its scheduled expiration on Friday.
Karl Rove, President Bush’s senior adviser, was the subject of intense speculation Thursday as he arrived at the White House.
As rumors coursed through the capital, Mr. Fitzgerald gave no public signal of how he intended to proceed, further intensifying the anxiety that has gripped the White House and left partisans on both sides of the political aisle holding their breath.
So, today — shortly — we should see whether this is on track. We should also get an indication of whether Fitzgerald will seek extension of the investigation to pursue new questions that have emerged — particularly if he has chosen to pursue questions regarding the source of “Niger/Uranium documents” and the promulgation of those by sources in the administration as part of a scheme inside the administration to hype the WMD threat.
Stay tuned.
— Steve Clemons
