Karl Rove Will Not Be Indicted

Karl Rove will not be indicted for his part in the Valerie Plame leak. I can't say that I was surprised by this. There have been several news stories reporting that Rove was working with Patrick Fitzgerald to provide information on the involvement of the Vice-President's office. It appears that Rove's cooperation paid off. There is a good reason for Rove's helpfulness. Mainly, avoiding prison.

Rove revealed to Time Magazine's Matthew Cooper that Valerie Plame was a CIA operative on July 11, 2003. Cooper's email to bureau chief Michael Duffy spilled the beans.

"Spoke to Rove on double super secret background for about two mins before he went on vacation ..." Cooper proceeded to spell out some guidance on a story that was beginning to roil Washington. He finished, "please don't source this to rove or even WH [White House]"

Rove had the audacity to say "Well, I'll repeat what I said to ABC News when this whole thing broke some number of months ago. I didn't know her name. I didn't leak her name." Those words for spoken over a year later at the 2004 Republican convention. Rove once smeared Judge Michael Kennedy by starting false rumors that he was a pedophile. So lying about knowing Plame's identity wouldn't be a big deal.

It gets better.

Rove testified that he had no memory of speaking to Cooper about Valerie Plame. Rove did think his conversation with Cooper was important enough to write an email to national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley.

Matt Cooper called to give me a heads-up that he's got a welfare-reform story coming. When he finished his brief heads-up, he immediately launched into Niger. Isn't this damaging? Hasn't the president been hurt? I didn't take the bait, but I said if I were him, I wouldn't get Time far out in front on this.

Rove was Robert Novak's famous second source. Novak told Rove "You are not going to get burned" and "I don't give up my sources."

So Rove would have good motivation to help Fitzgerald's investigation. Rove was more than happy to tell the grand jury that Lewis "Scooter" Libby may told first told him about Plame. Now that's loyalty.