Reply #21: "unknown...[if] Fitzgerald charged...a more serious obstruction of justice

[tiptoe]

charge."

From Karl Rove Indicted on Charges of Perjury, Lying to Investigators By Jason Leopold, Saturday 13 May 2006 (emphasis mine)

Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald spent more than half a day Friday at the offices of Patton Boggs, the law firm representing Karl Rove.

During the course of that meeting, Fitzgerald served attorneys for former Deputy White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove with an indictment charging the embattled White House official with perjury and lying to investigators related to his role in the CIA leak case, and instructed one of the attorneys to tell Rove that he has 24 business hours to get his affairs in order, high level sources with direct knowledge of the meeting said Saturday morning.

Robert Luskin, Rove's attorney, did not return a call for comment. Sources said Fitzgerald was in Washington, DC, Friday and met with Luskin for about 15 hours to go over the charges against Rove, which include perjury and lying to investigators about how and when Rove discovered that Valerie Plame Wilson was a covert CIA operative and whether he shared that information with reporters, sources with direct knowledge of the meeting said.

It was still unknown Saturday whether Fitzgerald charged Rove with a more serious obstruction of justice charge. Sources close to the case said Friday that it appeared very likely that an obstruction charge against Rove would be included with charges of perjury and lying to investigators.
...

The grand jury hearing evidence in the Plame Wilson case met Friday on other matters while Fitzgerald spent the entire day at Luskin's office. The meeting was a closely guarded secret and seems to have taken place without the knowledge of the media...

Alternative to inferring and speculating, respectively, that a) 12 to 13.5 hours of plea bargain "evidently did not result in any agreement" and b) "it appeared very likely that an obstruction charge against Rove would be included"...

...in a context of information bits from the report:
1) 15 hours interface between Luskin and Fitzgerald
2) at a meeting that was "a closely guarded secret"..."without the knowledge of the media."
3) explicit specification only of charges of perjury and lying to investigators
4) noteworthy absence of a more-serious charge of obstruction of justice...

...might it be possible that some agreement was worked out between Luskin and Fitzgerald, wherein the more-serious charge of obstruction of justice would not be included in an indictment of Rove in exchange for the latter's cooperation with Fitzgerald's case against higher ups (e.g. conspiracy case re Cheney/Bush/others).

Would a negotiated agreement with such a focus necessitate Rove resigning his WH position within "24 business hours" (i.e. either immediately, Monday evening, or after some pre-determined date/event/filing)? Should it be unexpected that the conditions of cooperation with Fitzgerald for reduced indictment charges for Rove remain under seal ("...in order not to tip off other members of a conspiracy"...see below)?

Is this alternative a possibility?

From There's not much that can be done re: sealed indictments. by Kagemusha (emphasis mine)

A sealed indictment can be used as something akin to legal blackmail by the state: a last ditch effort to intimidate a future defendant into "coming to Jesus" and cooperating on condition that the indictment stays sealed in order not to tip off other members of a conspiracy (as an example). I only know about this because of talk that Fitz has done this in organized crime cases. So, until a final deal is rejected and the indictment is unsealed and Rove has to answer charges in public, we don't know, we can't know, and that includes the media. I can't see Fitz' side leaking word of a sealed indictment. It's unwise to the extreme for Rove's legal team to leak word of a sealed indictment. Leopold's story depends on word of mouth that Rove informed the White House he'd been served with a sealed indictment, something which even the White House itself cannot confirm legitimately.