Rove NOT Indicted

Obviously, I feel that I have to respond to this news since I so gleefully wrote about Rove's potential indictment a few weeks ago.

A couple of weeks ago I very excitedly posted that Jason Leopold at Truthout.org reported that Karl Rove was indicted by Patrick Fitzgerald for perjury. Yesterday, Leopold reported that there was a sealed indictment out there and he speculated that it was potentially a Rove indictment. Today, Rove's attorney announced that he was informed by Fitzgerald that Rove would not be charged in the Valerie Plame case.

When Leopold first wrote his story, he said that he would out his sources if it turned out not to be true. Today, he seems to be backpeddling a bit on that statement. He took a lot of flack at the time for reporting the story when no one else in the mainstream media was reporting it. Needless to say, today he and Truthout are both being heavily scrutinized and critcized for their reporting of the original story.

I listened to Jason Leopold himself on the Ed Schultz radio show today and he and Truthout are standing by the original story. Jason says he is not going to out his sources, that it was a professional decision that was not made alone. And he is saying that just because Rove isn't being indicted now, doesn't mean there wasn't an indictment out there and that something has changed to change Rove's status and that maybe the indictment may have been used to broker a deal.

Here are my thoughts. No one, outside of Fitzgerald, the grand jury and possibly Rove, really knows what has happened. And Jason Leopold did have one valid point, Fitzgerald hasn't announced anything. I'm not trying to imply that Rove's lawyer is lying or that there is a possibility of a future Rove indictment. I'm just saying that regardless of what Leopold has said or what Rove's lawyer has said or what any republican or Democratic pundit has said or will say, the captain steering the ship has remained silent.

So, until such time when Fitzgerald holds a press conference and announces his results of the investigation into who outed Valerie Plame, I'm going to reserve judgement on the whole matter. I am interested in what Leopold and Truthout will eventually do with their source or any other information they may dig up, just as I'm interested in the outcome of this whole story. This is just one chapter in the investigation of who outed Valerie Plame.

I, for one, hope that Fitzgerald actually uncovers the real story behind who outed Ms. Plame and why and indicts everyone involved.