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Reactions to Newsweek's Latest on Karl Rove

Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) reacts to today's Newseek column confirming that Karl Rove was one of Matthew Cooper's sources.

David Corn's thoughts are here. Josh Marshall's here. Here's Hunter at Daily Kos.

The most important statements of the Bush officials may be those they made to investigators before they appeared at the grand jury. Don't forget, many were interviewed with and without lawyers in their offices, even in bars. Making a false statement to a federal official is a five year offense under 18 U.S.C. Section 1001. From the International Herald Tribune, April 3, 2004:

Fitzgerald is said by lawyers involved in the case and government officials to be examining possible discrepancies between documents he has gathered in the case and statements made by current or former White House officials during a three-month preliminary investigation conducted last fall by the FBI and the Justice Department. Some officials spoke to FBI agents with their lawyers present; others met informally with agents in their offices and even at bars near the White House.

...The suspicion that someone may have lied to investigators is based on contradictions between statements made by various witnesses in FBI interviews, the lawyers and officials said. The conflicts are said to be buttressed by documents, including memos, e-mail messages and phone records turned over by the White House.

At the same time, Fitzgerald is said to be investigating whether the disclosure of Plame's identity came after someone discovered her name among classified documents circulating at the upper echelons of the White House.

(Available on Lexis.com) and included in earlier TalkLeft posts.

If Bush officials lied to the grand jury, it's more likely to be perjury. The perjury law is here. But the Government wouldn't charge perjury without two witnesses to prove it, as I explain here.

Update: I've moved all of TalkLeft's Valerie Plame posts (almost 100 I think) to a separate Valerie Plame category. If you want the first sentence or two to show up, just put Plame in the search box, or click here.

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    Re: Reactions to Newsweek's Latest on Karl Rove (none / 0) (#1)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:01:03 PM EST
    This latest post from Steve Clemons is also worth considering. He says: "I'm eager to hear about Fitzgerald's next steps, but to add a bit of color to the story -- I had drinks recently with a person (unnamed of course) who has been close to Karl Rove and his operation for years. I asked whether it was possible that Rove had weighed in to this vengeful battle against Joe Wilson not knowing the illegality of commenting on Valerie Plame Wilson's covert responsibilities. This person simply smiled and said that Karl Rove 'doesn't make these kinds of mistakes' and knew 'exactly what he was doing.'" This suggests that Rove moved very delicately and very deliberately so as to violate the spirit of the law without violating its letter.

    Re: Reactions to Newsweek's Latest on Karl Rove (none / 0) (#2)
    by veloer on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:01:03 PM EST
    Do you rreally think that in this Rebublican controlled era that anyone will be punished for any crime?

    Re: Reactions to Newsweek's Latest on Karl Rove (none / 0) (#3)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:01:04 PM EST
    "Do you rreally think that in this Rebublican controlled era that anyone will be punished for any crime?" Of course they may be. The whole point is that the executive doesn't entirely control the federal prosecutors and state officials, who can cause a lot of problems for an entrenched DC junta. Will Rove go to jail? Not in a million years. But outing his crimes is important in itself, and also in the outing of Bush-putsch crimes.