Rove/Levine E-mail: Factor in Decision Not To Charge Rove

[Rose Siding]

Today, Wallsten and Hamburger at the LAT report that this was used as key evidence in not charging Rove as yet,
something prosecutors only focused on "as recently as Tuesday":

snip>
The e-mail exchange reviewed by prosecutors was between Rove and former White House media spokesman Adam Levine, and it focused on a topic unrelated to Plame or Wilson.

The exchange occurred several hours after Rove had talked to Time reporter Cooper. Prosecutors went back and interviewed Levine again this week, asking whether Rove had mentioned his conversations with Cooper. Rove did not initially tell investigators about his conversation with Cooper. In another session, Rove recalled that he had spoken with the reporter.

Levine told investigators that Rove had not brought up Plame or the Cooper conversation — suggesting that the topics were not priorities for Rove at the time.

"Levine's acknowledgment that the Cooper conversation did not come up in my client's conversation with Rove seems to support a theory that it just wasn't that important to Rove and could therefore have been easily forgotten," said Daniel French, Levine's attorney.

I don't understand. How could Rove have possibly brought up every single illegal thing he'd done that day in a single exchange? ;)

But seriously, it was hours later, it covered a different topic, and what leads us to think Rove would share his slitherings with anyone who was dealing openly with the media.



*Interesting note re rock-solid motive from insiders...

...{Rove} saw Wilson as a dangerous critic emerging a year before the presidential election.
Wilson was a political problem: He embodied doubts about the war, and he had credibility.

[rodeodance]

1. so now he is using as evidence his lack of bringing up Plame to otheres!!

my gawd!

[Rose Siding]

2. Flimsy, huh?

The lawyers can say this was important, but I think it's hogwash.

[HereSince1628]

20. This seems very damned odd to me.

It seems to me that for the absence of any mention of outing Plame to Cooper to a third person to be evidence there must be more than the exchange. Other assumptions must be true, which really make this defense unusual.

To make the nonevidence work as evidence that Rove didn't talk to Cooper requires odd logic rather like this. . .

Rove and others were involved in a campaign (conspiracy?) to deal with the Wilson problem.

Their plan was to do this by revealing Plame's CIA connection to the press through the press {sort of risky to admit since it admits that revealing Plame was part of a plan}.

Those involved in the campaign (conspiracy?) unfailingly reported to each other all their individual progress {an improbable assumption}.

Rove didn't mention talking to Cooper to another partner in the campaign (conspiracy?).

Therefore Rove did not talk to Cooper.

That must be one of the oddest paths of exculpation every taken.

[TahitiNut]

23. Was Levine a 'journalist'??? Could Rove depend on anonymity?

Rove was 'leaking' to those who'd keep his crime a secret under the specious 'privilege' of a reporter. If Levine wasn't a working journalist, priest, or lawyer then Rove wasn't interested in someone who'd blow the whistle.

Furtermore, email is 'evidenciary' -- Lord only knows how many copies would be lying around. Rove knows how to keep his fingerprints off a crime scene. He's experienced at it.

[Rose Siding]

24. And even then only as "double super secret background"

[DoYouEverWonder]

3. So since Rove didn't tell me about it

then it proves he didn't commit a crime? That's some twisted logic.

[wordpix2]

6. innocent until proven guilty---but truth will out with LIBBY

thinking about his 30 yrs. in jail

[DeepModem Mom]

4. Surely this is not enough to keep Karl out of hot water. nt

[Rose Siding]

9. *If* this is the kind of tenuous detail that stayed Rove's indictment,

I don't think we have much to worry about. Maybe it leads to more review of Levine's testimony (was he even called before the GJ?) :shrug:

[Wordie]

28. Maybe Rove thinks he'll get a more sympathetic hearing w/ a 2nd gj?

Or, was this is some sort of strategy to try to run the clock out? Because as one of the first responders to this thread noted, this seems awfully flimsy. (Which, in a way is good news, isn't it?)

[loudsue]

29. Well, Levine is obviously "lawyered-up", but I don't know

if Levine testified before the GJ or not.

:kick:

[Straight Shooter]

5. Rove only used sympathetic audiences to spread his poisonous agenda.

Therefore, Novak. He told others, also, who apparently had the good sense to back away.

Why would Rove give the info to Levine if he had already placed it into the hands of his most trusted lieutenant? Had he used Levine as a leak before? If I don't rob the pharmacy, does this ipso facto mean I didn't rob the liquor store? Jeebers.

[NYC Liberal]

7. I think Rove is going to make them all think they are saving themselves

by talking. He'll get everyone ratting on EACH OTHER (while thinking the others are screwed) and then soon, he'll have the whole lot!

Libby was a shot across the bow to get people talking.

[raysr]

8. When Fitz didn't indict

Rove, I feel that Rove has gotten away with it.

[Rose Siding]

10. I would too, except Fitz hasn't closed up shop.

It isn't over.

[NanceGreggs]

15. But it's what Fitz DIDN'T SAY ...

He DIDN'T say, "The investigation is now over."
He DIDN'T say, "There will be no further indictments."

He could have 'cleared' Rove yesterday -- but he DIDN'T.

[venable]

11. it's just not possible

that this gets Rove off the hook. In any way.

Fitz must have had some other reason for not indicting Rove yesterday.

Rove's day will come, hopefully cuz Scooter sings like a bird.

[DoYouEverWonder]

18. The only reason why Fitzgerald didn't indict Rove yesterday

is because at the last minute Rove's lawyers told the prosecutor that Rove had new info to present. The prosecutor had no choice but to give Rove one more opportunity to present new information. Rove only managed to postpone his own fate, because if that bone he gave Fitzgerald doesn't have any real meat on it, then Rove will be in even more trouble then he already is. It's not nice to jerk the prosecutor around.

[madrchsod]

12. hmmmmm

"lawyers familiar with the case" more bullshit from who`s lawyer? it certainly wasn`t the feds, so who planting seeds of confusion now? i guess the media has to write about something but that doesn`t mean i have to believe any of it..

[damntexdem]

13. Interesting defence against leaking classified information:

'He didn't leak it to everyone that day.' I can just imagine a defence in a bank robbery: "Well, he stopped by his own bank later that day and deposited thousands -- he didn't rob it ."

[TahitiNut]

25. Yep. He didn't murder everyone he saw that day so he's not a murderer.

Gee... that sure convinces me. :eyes:

[leftchick]

14. "fair game"

Isn't rove the one who said that to tweety about Mrs. Wilson? She was "fair game"? If tweety testified to that I would say it is much more persuasive than what he didn't say. :eyes:

[Rose Siding]

17. So he didn't tell the WH media front guy,

but there's evidence that he told others in the media. That only supports that the campaign against Wilson was covert, not that it didn't exist.

And if Wilson's contention that the smear was to warn off other critics is correct, isn't that how it would be handled?

Fitz isn't done.

[Halliburton]

16. if this is what kept Rove from being indicted

then that is ridiculous. Maybe rove didn't want to bring Plame up in this conversation.

[Mme. Defarge]

19. This possibility may have already been suggested

elsewhere, but perhaps Rove wasn't indicted yesterday because Fitz is still trying to determine which charges to include in the indictment. In other words, maybe there will be an indictment, but it's just not ready yet.

[progressivebydesign]

21. I can only hope this warranted further investigation.. otherwise..

I have never heard a more assinine, fabricated, excuse for not charging someone. Guess when your teen doesn't tell one of his friends that he skipped school yesterday, means he didn't do it. If it was a priority with him, he would have told him.

That is the stupidest thing I've ever seen. Really, perhaps this just extends the investigation further... cuz it's just lame.

[Rose Siding]

22. Here's what Cooper said about the phone call that preceded the e-mail-

snip>
As I told the grand jury--and we went over this in microscopic, excruciating detail, which may someday prove relevant--I recall calling Rove from my office at TIME magazine through the White House switchboard and being transferred to his office. I believe a woman answered the phone and said words to the effect that Rove wasn't there or was busy before going on vacation. But then, I recall, she said something like, "Hang on," and I was transferred to him. I recall saying something like, "I'm writing about Wilson," before he interjected. "Don't get too far out on Wilson," he told me. I started taking notes on my computer, and while an e-mail I sent moments after the call has been leaked, my notes have not been.

The grand jury asked about one of the more interesting lines in that e-mail, in which I refer to my conversation with Rove as being on "double super secret background," .....I explained to the grand jury that I take the term to mean that I can use the material but not quote it, and that I must keep the identity of my source confidential.

Rove went on to say that Wilson had not been sent to Niger by the director of the CIA and, I believe from my subsequent e-mails--although it's not in my notes--that Rove added that Dick Cheney didn't send him either. Indeed, the next day the Vice President's chief of staff, I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, told me Cheney had not been responsible for Wilson's mission.

http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,1083899,00.html

So: Why WOULD Rove share with a front-office sort of WH media guy something he's gone to pains to present to Cooper as "double super secret background"?

[thinkingwoman]

26. This is more nonsense

leaked out by Luskin. Pay it no mind.

[DeepModem Mom]

27. kick

[DeepModem Mom]

30. kick

[johnnydrama]

31. it's funny

It's funny that the very reason that they wanted to get Wilson was because he was a credible critic. He worked for Republicans & Democrats, stood up to Saddam, worked in Africa.

And now, the reverse spin is Wilson was a hack who could only get work through his wife, and had no expertise on anything.

[Zen Democrat]

32. Rove sent another email that day --- to Steven Hadley ---

in which he DID discuss talking to Matt Cooper. If his defense is that he didn't mention it to some underling like Levine, then I think Rove did nothing more than buy himself a few extra days before indictment.

In fact, this should piss off Fitzgerald, IMO.

[Rose Siding]

33. Time is also reporting that this was key in not filing charges

...according to "two sources close to Rove", anyway. By this reasoning, the whole rest of the country could've been included in Luskin's "negotiations" because he didn't tell us about it either.

Nov. 7, 2005 issue - Special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald's decision not to indict deputy White House chief of staff Karl Rove in the CIA leak case followed a flurry of last-minute negotiations between the prosecutor and Rove's defense lawyer, Robert Luskin. On Tuesday afternoon, Fitzgerald and the chief FBI agent on the case, Jack Eckenrode, visited the offices of the D.C. law firm where Luskin works to meet with the defense lawyer. Two sources close to Rove who asked not to be identified because the probe is ongoing said Luskin presented evidence that gave the prosecutor "pause." One small item was a July 11, 2003, e-mail Rove sent to former press aide Adam Levine saying Levine could come up to his office to discuss a personnel issue. The e-mail was at 11:17 a.m., minutes after Rove had gotten off the phone with Matt Cooper—the same conversation (in which White House critic Joe Wilson's wife's work for the CIA was discussed) that Rove originally failed to disclose to the grand jury. Levine, with whom Rove often discussed his talks with reporters, did immediately go up to see Rove. But as Levine told the FBI last week, Rove never said anything about Cooper. The Levine talk was arguably helpful to one of Luskin's arguments: that, as a senior White House official, Rove dealt with a wide range of matters and might not remember every conversation he has had with journalists. In any case, Fitzgerald made another visit early Friday morning—shortly before the grand jury voted to indict Dick Cheney's top aide, I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby—to the office of James Sharp, President George W. Bush's own lawyer in the case, to tell him the president's closest aide would not be charged. Rove remains in some jeopardy, but the consensus view of lawyers close to the case is that he has probably dodged the bullet.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9865842/site/newsweek

[elehhhhna]

34. Rove didn't tell HIM. Who tells their employees that they broke the law?

Pretty lame 'evidence' if that's the brunt of it.