Sad to say, it is true....the story from USA TODAY:
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http://WWW.usatoday.Com/news/Washington/2006-06-13-rove-CIA_x htm?POE=NEWISVA
WASHINGTON — Karl Rove, the president's top political adviser, still may face a civil lawsuit even after apparently being cleared of criminal wrongdoing in connection with the possible leaking of CIA officer Valerie Plame's name to the media.
Word that Rove won't be charged came early this morning in the form of a statement from his lawyer, Robert Luskin. In the statement, Luskin said Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald told him Monday that his client was in the clear.
"We believe the special counsel's decision should put an end to the baseless speculation about Mr. Rove's conduct," Luskin added.
Retired U.S. Diplomat Joseph Wilson, Plame's husband and the man at the center of the complicated leak investigation, issued a statement this morning saying "the day still may come when Mr. Rove and others are called to account in a court of law for their attacks on the Wilsons."
Wilson, in a brief telephone conversation with USA TODAY, would not elaborate on that statement.
But an attorney who specializes in First Amendment cases and has followed the machinations of the CIA leak case says it's clear Wilson is "posturing for a civil lawsuit" against Rove, former top White House aide I. Lewis Scooter" Libby and others he feels may have harmed him and his wife.
"He may be referring to a Privacy Act suit against the government and others who he wants to drag into it," said Bruce Sanford, a partner at the Washington, D.C.-based firm Baker Hostetler.
The genesis of Fitzgerald's investigation was a July 14, 2003, column by commentator Robert Novak. In that column, Novak explored a question that had Washington powerbrokers buzzing: Why had Wilson been sent by the CIA to Niger in 2002 to investigate claims that Saddam Hussein had tried to buy yellowcake uranium from that country?
Wilson was in the news that July because he had just written an op-Ed in The New York Times that accused the administration of misleading the nation when it said Saddam Hussein had been trying to acquire uranium for nuclear weapons. Wilson said he had told the administration there was no solid evidence to support the claim.
In his column, Novak wrote that Wilson's wife — Plame — was a CIA "operative
and that her position in the agency might have played a role in his getting the Niger assignment.
By the end of 2003, the political storm over whether a crime had been committed by the leaking of Plame's name had forced the appointment of Fitzgerald — a U.S. Attorney from Chicago — as special counsel.
His investigation, which continues, has led to charges against one person: Libby. But Libby, formerly Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, was not charged with breaking any law involving the leaking of Plame's name. Instead
he's been charged with perjury and obstruction of justice for alleged misstatements to Fitzgerald's investigators and to a grand jury. His case is due to go to trial next January.
The investigation also landed then-New York Times reporter Judith Miller in jail for 85 days because she refused to tell Fitzgerald about conversations she had with an anonymous source (later revealed to be Libby) about Plame.
To further complicate matters, it was revealed late last year that Washington Post investigative legend Bob Woodward was likely the first reporter to hear about Plame from a confidential source. Whether Fitzgerald s investigation is now focused on identifying Woodward's source is unknown.
This morning, Fitzgerald spokesman Randall Samborn said the special counsel s office would not comment on the status of its investigation, Luskin's statement that Rove has been cleared of criminal wrongdoing, or any other matter related to the probe.
At the White House, spokeswoman Dana Perino said, "We are pleased that the special counsel has concluded his deliberations. Karl is, as he has been throughout the process, fully focused on the task at hand — crafting and building support for the president's agenda."
Mark Carallo, a spokesman for Rove, said the president's political guru is elated" that "we're done."
Rove has testified five times before grand juries convened by Fitzgerald. One issue that got him in some hot water with Fitzgerald: He did not initially tell investigators or a grand jury about a July 2003 conversation he had with Time magazine's Matthew Cooper, in which Plame was briefly discussed. Rove later testified about that conversation, after alerting Fitzgerald that his memory had been refreshed by subsequently discovered e-mails in which the interview with Cooper was mentioned.
The lifting of the threat of criminal charges for Rove comes as he and other top GOP political operatives are working to boost Republican efforts to hold on to control of the House and Senate in the fall elections.
On television this morning, the political arguments over what the news means were quick to get started.
"The fact is this: I thought it was wrong when you had people like Howard Dean and (Sen.) Harry Reid presuming that he was guilty," Republican Party Chairman Ken Mehlman told Fox News Channel's Fox and Friends show Tuesday morning.
Democrats, on the other hand, had no reason to cheer.
"He doesn't belong in the White House. If the president valued America more than he valued his connection to Karl Rove, Karl Rove would have been fired a long time ago," said Dean, the Democratic Party chairman, on NBC's Today program. "So I think this is probably good news for the White House, but it s not very good news for America."
Lanny Davis, who was a special counsel in the Clinton White House through its rollercoaster years that included impeachment proceedings, said this morning that the news about Rove "verifies that Pat Fitzgerald is one of the most balanced and grounded prosecutors we have."
"Here we had a man with the power of a prosecutor," Davis told USA TODAY, who showed restraint and followed the evidence." Fitzgerald must have concluded, Davis said, that Rove "told the truth," particularly about forgetting — at first — the conversation with Cooper.
Now, Davis said, he hopes that Rove "realizes what the Clintonites went through and that we've got to stop the criminalization" of what he argues are normal, political acts that take place in any White House. Politically motivated subpoenas and investigations, Davis said, can paralyze any White House. "Karl Rove, of all people, should now appreciate that."
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That sucking sound you just heard was the groaning of all the liberal blogosphere...and the balloon busting on any chances of them winning back the Congress this year, now that Rove is now free to do his dirtiest.
And I believe it is now time for truthout.org and Jason Leopold to put up or shut up....either reveal the sources that punked him, or back away in shame and disgust for being taken in by Fitzgerald's investigation.
But..it was fun while it lasted.
Anthony