Friday, July 22, 2005

Fitzgerald's focus shifts to those pesky inconsistencies in testimony

Raw Story, in reviewing planned week-end articles for the LA Times & WaPo, says that the focus of special prosecuter Patrick Fitzgerald has changed from the intentional outing of Valerie Wilson to the inconsistencies in grand jury testimony and discrepancies in accounts of events provided to the FBI. This would signal that the President's beloved turdblossom Karl Rove and I. Lewis "Leaky" Libby may be facing charges of perjury and obstruction of justice.
The investigation's change in emphasis comes amid indications that Fitzgerald's inquiry has gone well beyond scrutinizing the actions of top White House officials, such as Rove and Libby, who is chief of staff for Vice President Dick Cheney, to searching for the potential source of the leak in other parts of the White House and other executive branch agencies.
President Bush, in keeping with his promise to fire anyone involved in the treasonous outing of Valerie Plame, will consider doing so when administration officials are convicted by a judge who can pat his/her head and rub his/her belly simultaneously while passing a sentencing. Should any administration officials (friends, major donors or those knowingly assisting the administration in the selling of propaganda as journalism) be indicted, the President will insist on trials with resolution while he is still in office so he issue pardons that will allow current administration officials to serve in future Republican administrations (or be welcomed back to court if/when he is proclaimed King).

UPDATE (23JUL05, 7:07AM): Links to LA Times & WaPo Stories added above. From WaPo, it appears as though Rove never mentioned having any contact with Matt Cooper until recently despite the fact he'd been questioned by the FBI at least 5 times in the past 2 years & gave the impression Bob Novak was the only reporter with whom he spoke (in statements that directly contradict Novak's, Rove claims Novak supplied him will all the information he had about Valerie Plame). [emphasis added]

Lawyers involved in the case said there are now indications that Fitzgerald did not initially know or suspect that Rove was Cooper's primary source for the reporter's information about Plame. That raises questions about how much Rove disclosed when first questioned in the inquiry or how closely he was initially queried about his contacts with reporters. Rove has testified before a grand jury and been questioned by FBI agents on at least five occasions over the past two years.

Two lawyers involved in the case say that although Fitzgerald used phone logs to determine some contacts between officials and reporters, they believe there is no phone record of Cooper's now-famous call to Rove in the days before Novak's column appeared. That is because Cooper called the White House switchboard and was reconnected to Rove's office, sources said.

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