Karl Rove: Indictment Coming, But No Divorce From Bush

President Bush now says he will fire for convictions, not mere leaks. The consensus of lawyers is that Karl Rove will be indicted by the grand jury now in session in Washington, DC, in the Valerie Plame outing case -- and not for what you think. Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald appears to have a slam-dunk case under Title 18, Sec. 641, USC (which is NOT about outing a covert agent) just as the DOJ did for leaker Jonathan Randel, who got a year in prison. Karl Rove was abandoned by both of his parents -- the man he called Dad left home, Rove found out "Dad" wasn't his father after all (his aunt and uncle "outed" this at the dinner table), and his mother committed suicide.

George Bush, his soulmate, won't -- can't -- abandon him:  Bush was abandoned by his parents emotionally, in a shocking way, as I will relate.  As a result, Bush is a flawed man who is totally dependent on Rove emotionally as well as professionally.  So Bush would never fire him.

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However, here's why special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald could go down in history as the man who caught Rove.  According to  a famed Chicago judicial activist -- Sherman Skolnick, who knows everyone and everything that goes on in the Clout City's courts -- Fitzgerald is honest and "hardnosed" and he has the goods on various people in this case.  Besides, there are statutes (below) and case law (United States vs. Randel) to cover what Karl Rove has *admitted* to.  Yes, admitted to.  Where they apparently "have him" is on CONVEYING -- WITHOUT AUTHORITY-- A THING HAVING VALUE (information has a market value to magazines and newspapers), and WHICH BELONGS TO THE GOVERNMENT.   A Georgia man, Jonathan Clay Randel, was convicted under this law by Bush's Justice Department.  There *will* be an indictment.  It will be multicount; but the charge on Title 18, Sec. 641 USC is the easiest to prove, as I will illustrate.

Rove will resign in disgrace, but Bush will still use him as a telecommuting spinmaster, just as he did Karen Hughes.  Bush will always need Rove for his own personal covert operations and emotional support.  Damage to Bush's and the government's credibility will grow -- a threat to both national security and the rule of law -- thanks to these two men flawed by their early childhood, George Bush and Karl Rove.

THE FUNNIES

Looking at the World War II comic strip poster, whom would you hang for sinking the Exeter?  Bill, the longshoreman (Scooter Libby [Cheney's aide] aboard Air Force One)?  Al, the diner operator (Karl Rove)?  Von B. (Robert Novak), the actual broadcaster?   The Rove-Plame affair is something like this: A story is spread from person to person by loose lips, until the final malefactor broadcasts it to real or potential enemies.

Naturally, each one says he is not the source of the leak (Rove says he learned Plame's CIA link from "the media"), or he doesn't remember where he learned the leaked information (Rove says he doesn't remember which media source), or he didn't know what he was really saying (Rove says he didn't know Plame was undercover).    

If we are in a so-called "war on terror," then listening enemies are among us even more than in World War II (see second graphic).

MATT COOPER'S EMAIL IS ENOUGH TO FORCE
KARL ROVE OUT OF THE WHITE HOUSE

Matthew Cooper is a reporter for Time Magazine.  Time and Cooper make money by selling magazines.  Karl Rove is in the habit of acting as a source for Cooper and Time, which helps them to sell magazines -- nothing criminal about that.  Where Title 18, Section 641, United States Code seems to come in is when he gave Cooper, Time, and others * valuable information belonging to the government that is not intended to be public information.*

1.  ROVE HAD NO AUTHORITY TO DIVULGE THE INFORMATION THAT COOPER'S EMAIL DOCUMENTS.   For the purposes of Section 641, the information DOESN'T HAVE TO BE CONFIDENTIAL OR EVEN SENSITIVE.  All it has to be is disclosed without authority, plus salable (and Rove needn't be the one who sold it).  Rove obviously had no authority to cause the publication of the fact that Joseph Wilson's wife Valerie was an officer of the CIA with and working on WMD, yet that is the effect of his admitted disclosure or confirmation of this government information to Cooper and others.   It took Cooper about a minute to Google Mrs. Joseph Wilson and learn that her maiden name was Plame.  Under the name Valerie Plame, Mrs. Wilson had worked as a CIA covert (undercover) agent; and conservative columnist Robert Novak, whom Rove also had talked to, beat Cooper to publishing the story and outing Plame Wilson.  

2.  ROVE'S INFORMATION HAS A MONETARY VALUE:  How many extra magazines has Newsweek sold with the Rove-Cooper email story (the July 18, 2005, issue, online at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8525978/site/newsweek/)?  Surely the value of the increased sales exceeds $1000, the threshold in Section 641.

I have included Section 641 at the end, in its entirety.  I believe that Karl Rove should be prosecuted by special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, under this section and possibly other laws, including obstruction of justice, perjury, revealing classified information, and conspiracy.

A SHORT BACKGROUND ON ROVE

Here's the kind of creepy crawlers we are dealing with, folks.  In 1981, when Rove was 31, his mother, Reba Wood (maiden name) killed herself.  In a 2004 interview with Time Magazine, he showed that, like the Bushes, he had no proper grief.  The best he could offer was, "And it's very sad for my sisters, who were very close to her."  Apparently, only political losses sadden Karl Rove.  He reveres his adoptive father, in contrast, who Karl says, kept "sending a check to help me get through school."  Here is a man who knows where his bread is buttered.  It has been buttered for the last 20 years by George W. Bush and his clan, and a little thing like a conviction wouldn't end that.

As to President George W. Bush and the death of his sister Robin when both were children, noted psychiatrist Justin Frank, M.D., said in his book on Bush, "The family's reaction -- no funeral and no mourning -- set in motion his life-long pattern of turning away from pain [and hiding] behind antic behavior....George W. was never informed of the reason for the sudden absences [of his parents to get medical attention for Robin]; unaware that his sister was ill, he was simply told not to play with the girl, to whom he had grown quite close, on her occasional visits home. Robin died in New York in October 1953; her parents [Bush Sr. and Barbara] spent the next day golfing in Rye, attending a small memorial service the following day before flying back to Texas. George learned of his sister's illness only after her death, when his parents returned to Texas, where the family remained while the child's body was buried [George and Barbara had another golf date?] in a Connecticut family plot. There was no funeral."  These people don't mourn, even as animals do, and they don't bury their dead as humans do.

A SHORT BACKGROUND ON PLAME

Valerie Wilson of course is Mrs. Joseph Wilson.  Joseph Wilson is a former US ambassador.  Before the Iraq war, the Bush administration sent him to Nigeria to see if Saddam Hussein had sought to buy uranium there.  Wilson reported back that there was not proof; and after the war started, he published an article that said President Bush had used Nigerian uranium as one false pretense for war.  Plame is Mrs. Valerie Wilson's maiden name.  She formerly worked as a covert agent for the CIA, using her maiden name to cover her true identity.  Out of pique for Joe Wilson's protestations, or to discredit Joe Wilson's Nigerian mission, Robert Novak, the Republican conservative zealot columnist, published an article saying that it was Mrs. Wilson, aka Valerie Plame, who had sent her husband on the mission, not Vice President Cheney, who of course wouldn't send such a lowlife (to Republican conservatives) on a mission.  Novak published this after Karl Rove confirmed the story for him, grand jury records will show.

AGGRAVATING CIRCUMSTANCES

As President George H.W. Bush once stated: "We need more protection for the methods we use to gather intelligence and more protection for our sources, particularly our human sources, people that are risking their lives for their country."  

There is no way to know what risks Valerie Plame Wilson and other intelligence sources who once worked for "Valerie Plame" have been exposed to as a result of Rove and Novak outing her.  There is no way to know when you drink and drive that you will kill someone, either.  However, some take that chance.  Karl Rove's disclosures to Cooper and others could reasonably be expected to jeopardize  "people that are risking their lives for their country," as President Bush's father put it.  Furthermore, this was done maliciously, to "get" Wilson, and Karl Rove is generally acknowledged as George Bush's dirty-tricks man -- Rove, with his decades-long history as an anal person.

If the special prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald of Chicago, does prosecute, I believe that the federal court will consider these and other circumstances if Karl Rove becomes a convicted felon and that he will serve time.  Fitzgerald has kept the grand jury in session long enough (a year and 7 months) that he probably is going to seek indictment(s) -- if not, it's high time to close up shop.  Other likely charges against various players in the case are perjury, obstruction of justice,  conspiracy, and revealing classified information.

WHAT "LOOSE LIPS" ROVE TOLD MATTHEW COOPER OF TIME
(QUOTE OF INFAMOUS EMAIL)

Matthew Cooper has provided Fitzgerald's grand jury with an email that Cooper wrote to his bureau chief at Time, Michael Duffy, that goes:

"Subject: Rove/P&C," [personal and confidential]

Spoke to Rove on double super secret background for about two mins before he went on vacation ... Please don't source this to Rove or even WH [White House] ... big warning ... don't get too far out on Wilson...

DCIA ... [didn't authorize Joe Wilson's Nigeria trip] ... it was, KR said, wilson's wife, who apparently works at the agency on wmd issues who authorized the trip."  [End of Quote]

What a scoop this could have been for Cooper and Time.  Instead, it was Washington Post columnist Robert Novak who  wrote the first article naming Mrs. Wilson, Valerie Plame, as someone who "works at the agency on WMD" (weapons of  mass destruction).  Novak published this *after* he talked to Karl Rove, as Rove admits.  Cooper's email proves that he also was in a position to publish the story, as Rove had confirmed this information for him.

ROBERT NOVAK'S STORY WITH "NO SOURCE": P-E-R-J-U-R-Y
(By Someone)

Robert Novak said in his article that two Bush administration officials were his source.   If they were, he presumably named them to the grand jury .  Obviously one could be Karl Rove.  The other could be Scooter Libby, Dick Cheney's chief aide.

Karl Rove testified to the grand jury that he learned Wilson's wife was CIA from "news media," not from government sources.  This could serve his legal defense, depending on the laws he eventually is charged under.  However, he is not saying publicly which news media.  The information about Wilson's wife had not been published yet by Novak or anyone else in the media.   Also, even if Rove got his information in private conservations with reporters, it was in the course of, and because of, his work in the government that he got it.  That means he could be liable under Section 641 and other statutes.

Rove claimed in testimony that Novak called him just before publishing on Wilson's wife and told Rove she worked for the CIA as Valerie Plame.  Rove told the grand jury that he replied to Novak that he had heard something like that (Government sources?  A reporter?).   He thus confirmed for Novak, and facilitated, Novak's infamous leak.  For that, Rove should have been fired already -- except that Bush has just doubled the standard for firing: Rove must have committed a crime.

Three days after talking to Novak, according to Karl's grand jury testimony, he had the conversation with Time Magazine's Cooper outlined in Cooper's email above.   This time, however, Rove gave out (see email), instead of received, the information about Mrs. Wilson, though Cooper had to Google to find out she was Valerie Plame.

It is possible that, contrary to Rove's grand jury testimony, instead of merely confirming the Plame Wilson/CIA link for Novak, he was  Novak's source on this just as he was Cooper's.

Possible perjury (and obstruction, conspiracy, and violations of secrecy) committed by different ones before the grand jury may be one thing that is extending its work.

Rove is saying the information transfer was from media/Novak to Rove to Cooper, which still would leave him liable under Section 641 for things he told Cooper.

A more likely transfer was from Rove to Novak and Cooper and other media people, which involves Section 641, perjury, and possibly other crimes (obstruction, conspiracy, secrecy violations).   I expect a long list of charges, some of which bear long sentences -- and not just for Rove.

JUDITH MILLER NO JOAN OF ARC --
ROVE HIDING BEHIND HER SKIRT

Judith Miller of The New York Times has been jailed for refusing to reveal her sources on the Mrs. Wilson-CIA story.  She cites journalistic privilege and all that.  I suspect, however, that she has gone to jail for Karl Rove and that he is at least one source she is protecting.  Rove granted Matt Cooper a waiver -- a specific waiver naming Cooper, as sought by Cooper's attorney -- to reveal to the grand jury his communications with Rove.  He did not give Ms. Miller a similar waiver, probably because what he communicated to her is more incriminating for Rove or others.

Valerie Wilson's husband Joseph opposed the Iraq war before it started because he knew it was based on trumped-up charges.  Rove went after Mrs. Wilson, using journalists, to get to her husband.  Journalist Miller, on the other hand, was one of the loudest banshees wailing to begin the dying and killing in Iraq.  If she had the goods on Karl Rove, she would not give them up -- for ideological reasons, not for journalistic reasons.

ONE LEAK THAT THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION DID PLUG
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September 29th, 2003:   Scott McLellan, the White House spokesman, in answer to a news-conference question, said, "The president has set high standards, the highest of standards, for people in his administration. He's made it very clear to people in his administration that he expects them to adhere to the highest standards of conduct. If anyone in this administration was involved in it [the leak], they would no longer be in this administration."  

February 10, 2004: George Bush said, "There are too many leaks of classified information in Washington. If there's leaks out of my administration, I want to know who it is, and if the person has violated the law, the person will be taken care of."

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Rove has admitted confirming Novak's story for him before Novak leaked it, but this creep still is employed.   Jonathan Clay Randel was not as lucky as Rove.  On January 9, 2003, George Bush's justice department reported that its Atlanta office (attorneys Randy S. Chartash and Phyllis Sumner) had obtained for Randel a conviction and a one-year sentence in federal prison and three years' probation under Title 18, Section 641, USC.  

The DOJ press release at http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/gan/press/01-09-03_2html says that Randel, as an employee of the Drug Enforcement Agency, had supplied to an British newspaper sensitive, nonpublic information the DEA had about an English citizen.  The trial proved that the citizen was of interest to the paper because of his importance and that the information provided by Randel had a market value that exceeded $1000.  He could have received up to 10 years in prison under USC Title 18, Section 641.

ROVE'S LAWYER COPS A PLEA ALREADY

Karl Rove is going to need a good lawyer, and he has hired one.  He has hired Robert D. Luskin http://www.pattonboggs.com/Attorneys/detail.aspx?id=96ea6d2c-0a8f-4cac-9... of the Washington, DC, firm Patton Boggs, a specialist in white-collar crime.

According to the Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/10/AR200507... , Luskin said in defense of Rove:

"Rove did not mention her name to Cooper.  This was not an effort to encourage Time to disclose her identity. What he was doing was discouraging Time from perpetuating some statements that had been made publicly and weren't true."

This contradicts Cooper's email on the conversation where it says, "KR said, wilson's wife, who apparently works at the agency on wmd issues who authorized the trip."   Someone is lying and someone must have lied to Fitzgerald's grand jury.  This quoted information would have sent Cooper on Mrs. Valerie Wilson's trail, and it would only be a matter of time before he found out that she also was Valerie Plame and that under that name she was once a covert agent.  That her husband was well known in Washington would have helped.

It took me less than a minute to find out that the maiden name of Rove's own dear wife is Darby Hickson and his previous wife was Valerie Wainwright.

Rove presumably gave Robert Novak at least the same information he gave Cooper, when Rove talked with Novak before Novak was the first to publish that Valerie Plame Wilson was a CIA "operative."   Robert Novak also must have known, when he published, that Valerie Plame was a "covert agent," as they are called in the Intelligence Identities law, since "operative" is the term he reserves for covert agents.   Novak apparently knowingly outed a covert CIA agent.

Rove claimed he didn't know Mrs. Wilson was a covert agent before Novak published the fact.  He did admit, however, that Novak told him she was a CIA officer who used the name Valerie Plame and that he told Novak, "I heard that, too."  One has to wonder, what was Rove thinking?  If she wasn't undercover -- a "covert agent" -- why did she assume a double identity?

For more on Valerie Plame Wilson's identity status, see http://www.washtimes.com/national/20050715-121257-9887r_page2.htm .

UNITED STATES CODE [Quote]

Title 18, Section 641. Public money, property or records

      Whoever embezzles, steals, purloins, or knowingly converts to his
    use or the use of another, or without authority, sells, conveys or
    disposes of any record, voucher, money, or thing of value of the
    United States or of any department or agency thereof, or any
    property made or being made under contract for the United States or
    any department or agency thereof; or
      Whoever receives, conceals, or retains the same with intent to
    convert it to his use or gain, knowing it to have been embezzled,
    stolen, purloined or converted -
      Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten
    years, or both; but if the value of such property does not exceed
    the sum of $1,000, he shall be fined under this title or imprisoned
    not more than one year, or both.
      The word ''value'' means face, par, or market value, or cost
    price, either wholesale or retail, whichever is greater.
[End Quote]