Fitzgerald Learned Rove Was Trying to Fire Him in 2005–While Rove Was Still Under Investigation
In a supplement to his responses to the House Judiciary Committee, Patrick Fitzgerald confirms what we’ve always suspected: Karl Rove was trying to have Patrick Fitzgerald fired while Fitzgerald was still investigating Rove for his role in leaking Valerie Wilson’s identity–and the timing lines up perfectly with the Administration’s efforts to fire a bunch of US Attorneys.
Remember back in June, when Fitzgerald publicly suggested he had more details to share with Congress about Rove’s efforts to get him fired?
"If I owe a response [about the putsch to remove him from his job], I owe it to Congress, first," Fitzgerald said when asked about all this after the verdict.
Well, it turns out Fitzgerald did share those details with Congress. And those details make it clear that Fitzgerald learned Rove was trying to fire him while Fitzgerald was still actively investigating Rove’s role in the leak of Valerie Wilson’s identity.
In my answers submitted on May 2,2008, I noted in my response to Question Eleven that I omitted discussion of when I first learned that I might be asked to resign as United States Attorney. I declined to answer more fully due to the then pending trial of United States v. Antoin Rezko in the Northern District of Illinois. With that trial concluded, I can briefly elaborate further: I learned some time in or about early 2005 from agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation ("FBI") that a cooperating witness (who later testified at the Rezko trial, but not about this topic) had advised the FBI agents that he had earlier been told by one of Mr. Rezko’s co-schemers that it was the responsibility of a third person in Illinois to have me replaced as United States Attorney. I should be clear that I did not understand that any putative effort to replace me as United States Attorney was related to my conduct as Special Counsel but understood instead that it was related to the investigative activities of federal agents and prosecutors conducting a corruption investigation in Illinois. [my emphasis]
As a reminder, here’s the allegation with all the names handily added in (though I think Fitzgerald is referring to someone besides Ata, because Ata was not yet cooperating with the Rezko prosecutors):
In a hearing before court began, prosecutors said they hoped to call Ali Ata, the former Blagojevich administration official who pleaded guilty to corruption yesterday, to the stand.
Assistant U.S. Atty. Carrie Hamilton said she believed Ata would testify to conversations Ata had with his political patron, Rezko, about working to pull strings to kill the criminal investigation into Rezko and others when it was in its early stages in 2004.
"[Ata] had conversations with Mr. Rezko about the fact that Mr. Kjellander was working with Karl Rove to have Mr. Fitzgerald removed," Hamilton told U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve.
Note, Fitzgerald emphasizes that Rove was trying to fire him to protect Republican donor Bob Kjellander, not to protect Rove and Libby and Cheney. But that doesn’t change the fact that Rove was in discussions about firing Fitzgerald while he–Rove–was under active investigation.
Also note the timing: while the discussions between this cooperating witness and (presumably) Kjellander happened earlier, the timing lines up with the effort to fire all the US Attorneys–and then, when Kyle Sampson suggested his name, Fitzgerald specifically–at the beginning of 2005.
Kyle Sampson always kind of reminded me of a younger, dumber Turdblossom. I wonder if Turdblossom was responsible for Kyle’s placement as Fredo’s minder?
Yes.
This has been another edition of SATSQ.
Ot sorry but
Talk about wow!!!!!!http://balkin.blogspot.com/2008/07/this-tells-you-basically-everything-you.html
I know you’re probably deep into the Dark Side by now but I just have to mention this observation that Lederman makes.
all the things you have written about the OLC Addington/Gonzalas/Cheney/////? are beyond on the money.Now mabybe you’ll get some of the credit you so well deserve.The heart of the conspiracy/OLC coup
Shocking! Who knew? Eh, we that read here consistently did, that’s who. A lot of this stuff really only leads to one conclusion if you put the pieces together and think about it a little. Marcy and the people that frequent here are very, very good at that. The fact that Emptywheel is out in front is no fluke; it is hard work and a hell of a lot of skill by the hostess and, it is also a lot of very bright participants who both drive and supplement the work. Neither one works as well without the other; but the combined end product is pretty darn outstanding eh?
Why yes. Yes it is.
IANAL, but it seems that Turdblossom really stepped in it… Maybe he was trying to protect Kjellander, but I think the fact that he was trying to get Pat Fitz fired while Rove, himself, was under investigation smacks of obstruction. It stinks, there is no doubt — and provides further proof of the overall effort to politicize justice.
Ok, refresh me – what are/will be the consequences of this to Rove? Anything underway?
I’m sure the sternly worded letters are in the works already.
A political operative or Rove’s caliber, with constant direct access to the President and the DOJ, wouldn’t think to hang his “let’s fire the guy” hat on the hook of doing so to protect an Illinois politico rather than to protect his own backside?
YES!!! This is exactly what Stewart Levine testified under oath. He said that Tony Rezko was working on his Rove connections to get Fitz fired.
I think I hear a stuck pig beginning to squeal.
Let’s give this some diggs folks.
and, where is Karl today? Still basking on the beach in the Crimea?
So can someone explain why Saint Fitz didn’t indict Rove for obstruction? Please?
I have spent countless hours trying to figure what the heck Rove could have said in that last GJ appearance that got him off the hook or stymied Pat’s case.
It drives me nuts.
Yeah- it doesn’t smell good. FIVE bites at the apple to tell the truth? Why? Fucker should have been fried the first time- You or I would have been- and now we discover that the slimy bastard was tryin to get Fitzy fired? And Fitzy knew and did nothing? Stinks!
He wouldn’t have indicted Rove to retaliate for Rove trying to fire him. That would be wrong.
Tha would be the kind of thing Rove would do. Actually there becomes a weird sort of conflict of interst if you are investiating someone and you find out they are trying to fire you. Think aout it.
But I think there is some other reason, something that they hoped to get from Libby that they needed inorder to get Rove and cheney. I have no clue what it was and really wonder what happened in that last GJ appearance.
I continue to believe that what saved Rove was that Richard Armitage, who supposedly was up front about his involvement in all of this to begin with, somehow “forgot” that he repeatedly betrayed Plame’s identity to Bob Woodward. When that became known, it was nearly impossible to prosecute Rove for perjury without also prosecuting Armitage. And Fitz was clearly willing to give Armitage the benefit of the doubt, so he was more or less obligated to extend it to Rove, too.
This is Justice? Fitz said “truth is the engine of our judicial system” I actually believed him.
I’m 92% certain that Armitage told the FBI in Oct 2003 about his comment to Woodward. Whereas Rove continues to use the claim that “Armitage said it first,” as a way to confuse the facts that: (1) Rove denied leaking the name, (2) Rove didn’t come clean until Luskin heard from Viveca Novak that Rove was a source.
I think it’s more likely to do with whatever VIveca Novak said to Luskin.
Until that point, Rove continued to claim he was innocent.
Yeah, but the curious thing is that not just did he wait until then to roll with that take, (I think calling it “coming clean” is a wild mischaracterization); but that by whipping out that take he managed to not only get himself off the charging hook for the underlying crime(s), but also somehow simultaneously undercut Fitz’s perception of strength as to false statements charges. There is an old, and originally common law based, principle as to perjury about ability to cure the perjury if you do so before the matter has exited the grand jury. That doesn’t really apply to false statements to federal officers charges though, and those are the ones that I have always focused on as to Rove.
Well, here’s a situation where your expertise in criminal law is so far beyond my own knowledge that I don’t actually understand the parts that I’ve bolded in this passage.
So, basically Rove could lie his ass off (and delay things) as long as the GJ was being held? And then as long as he came clean at the last moment, he was still legally off the hook? (Sounds like a technicality that makes my blood boil; do I correctly understand you here?)
However, even if he’s ‘off the hook’ for lying to the GJ, he’s still ‘on the hook’ for lying to the FBI, correct? And if that’s the case, then why wasn’t he changed for that…? Does he ALSO get a free hall pass if he corrects what he told the FBI?
Also, I can’t see any live video over at “Meet the Bloggers”… am I missing something? Or will they wait until the show is over to post streaming video…? (I thought they were going to stream it live, but I don’t get a signal… maybe it’s a Safari issue…?)
Yes. Why not? Why do they keep allowing Rove to get away with this horse shit.
Once again the Justice system proves that there are different rules that these thugs operate under. NO RULES
Ok people this is HOT news. Digg please
Dugg!
Wow Marcy, that IS hot news!
Yes I’m Back.
Karl rove is a treasonous bastard and should be in jail ten times over, and he knows it.
Such a coward and a bully, he runs like the coward he is the second he thinks he might actually be hauled in for questioning.
Pig fucker, I would LOVE to see him get nailed.
and frogmarched
That would be my screen saver.
oo great idea!!
For life!! Then march him off to the Hague for War Crimes
yeah, it’s not like the US is likely to do anything about it
Wonder if we know yet why Rover left the White House- this? or somethin else?
House judiciary committee to have an all day Clusterfuck bash on friday- they’ll include the impeachment articles and a laundry list of other bullshit- yak about it all day- and then go home.
What the fuck!
So, we are, once again, looking at obstruction here?
IANAL, but I turn a mean wrench.
http://rawstory.com//news/2008….._0717.html
link to story about house judiciary hearings- they are on the 25th.
Thank you Marcy
AAAAAAND, were back.
I think the server people need to get a better grade of squirrels.
w00t!
So, is this finally finally finally the smoking gun in the US Attorney scandal?
I have seen so many smoking guns in so many scandals in the past 4 years, that I just can’t evaluate them anymore.
hi babies !!!
yes egregious – thank you Marcy!
and thank you Patrick Fitzgerald – you hunka hunka burnin boy scout love
Thank you Marcy! Let’s see if rove lawyers up again…
BTW in re. Digging this, EW’s x-post of this at Big Orange is on the Rec list, and currently at +447 w/326 comments. (Hell of a story for the FDLco squirrels to take a PTO day on, if ya ask me.)
gwb sewage plant
http://www.dailykos.com/
I love this country
Digressing by association, whatever happened with that mysterious sealed-vs-sealed indictment that Jason Leopold conjectured two years ago might be an indictment of Rove?
As to Sealed v. Sealed. Personally, I never thought that it was an indictment of Rove even if the matter was related to the leak investigation; and, quite frankly, at this point I think it is at least a fair bet that the thing was not related to the leak investigation at all. Speculation, but the best speculation I got.
even if sealed vs sealed is related to this case, big frigging deal, the president will simply dismiss the charges, site executive priviledge and bing
it is now too late to do anything, the president knows he has unlimited power and this power grew BECAUSE OF FITZ and it grew because PELOSI WATCHED THE PRESIDENT DESTROY OUR CONSTITUTION
there is now nothing that can ever be done
congress is powerless unless they use their power
and they won’t and therefore THIS president is a dictator
better link I hope
http://balkin.blogspot.com/200…..g-you.html
Ah, Marcy, any excuse to get a full color pic of Fitzgerald next to your name, right?
Great job.
Oh I didn’t put it there. On EW, there is no photo. The elves that moved the post to the front page must like Fitz.
There are elves at Raw Story too. Different elves, though.
By the way folks, and maybe by the morning this will be resolved, but the issue that had us offline for an extended period also wiped out the new comment advisory and ability to click on it. So, if you are not seeing new comments, you may want to refresh your browser screen to check for them. Hopefully, this will no longer be a problem by the time you see this, but if it is, that is how you remedy it until we are fully repaired.
you know, we have really deified fitz far too much, there was definately a case against rove and this thread makes that brutally obvious, more of a case in fact then there was against libby, it is rediculous that libby was the only person tried in this case
there was a case against cheney and he needed to be brought to the bar of justice, even if only to invoke his executive priviledge, that needed to happen
and rove needed to be tried and I am totally not impressed with fitz and his ego, I don’t give a hoot about “he needed a case that was air tight”, he had a case that was air tight and he refused to draw the charges ONLY because he knew the criminals would invoke their executive priviledge
WELL THAT NEEDED TO HAPPEN BEFORE THE PUBLIC and before the bar
I am just plain disgusted
Oh, that is a crock. I think Rove could have been prosecuted, but it was certainly not airtight, and not nearly as strong as the case against Libby. What you know, and think you know, sitting on the outside on the sidelines is one hell of a lot different that what exists in a trial courtroom under the rules of evidence. As one with a tad bit o experience in those settings, I can say that you are off base with those statements. And Fitz could not have charged Rove with anything related to the subject of this post, because Fitz was part of that fact situation himself, so he would have had a direct conflict of interest. I understand your frustration, trust me I do, but this stuff is a lot more complex that the paradigm you are viewing it in; the hard line statements you have seemingly casually thrown out just are flat out wrong.
when the only person charged was libby, and when he got his conviction, I said the exact same thing.
fitz has an incredible case against both rove and cheney and the only reason he didn’t prosecute was because he knew he could not overcome executive priviledge, I believe that is even alluded to in his statement after conviction of libby
and that is the very point, criminals hiding behind the skirts of their position MUST invoke their “executive priviledge” for all to see, and THAT is the best thing you can do SINCE you cannot get a conviction
but leaving the criminals uncharged is NOT the thing to do
bmaz, I said this then and I am saying it now again BECAUSE we now know fitz KNEW rove was obstructing justice and did nothing
the excuse that there would be a conflict of interest simply does not hold, he can point out the obstruction and at THE VERY LEAST ask for a prosecution from another prosecutor…at the very very least
I see this as an incredible failure on patricks’ part, sorry
the time has come where all crimes are now permissable by the president and vice president, they can do whatever they want and make up new law “ON THE FLY”, and claim it is in the interest of national security
they can do whatever the hell they want and I am disgusted with pelosi, conyers, our congress and now I am disgusted with fitz
totally
And Comey, when asked by Specter whether he believed that he had suffered any retaliation for his dissent as DAG, said no. That may have been true in a narrow sense, but it sure looks as though he paid for his independence within a year.
I actually admire the noble self-restraint and all, and I recognize that these guys are trained not to leap to conclusions, at least not in a courtroom or before Congress. But sheesh, that is a lot of self-restraint going on.
And I was starting to wonder why Republicans were not beating drums about Obama and Rezko (they are repeating all of Clinton’s primary stuff often – Wright, flag, Michelle unpatriotic, etc. – but rarely does any Republican bring up Rezko). I guess they knew that bringing up Rezko would eventually get back to Rove and USA firings for political reasons.
As usual, Perry Mason reporting, a masterpiece, a revealing portrait of a scumbug. Marcy, Thanks.
I saw the story on RAW STORY, but then couldn’t enter the inner life of FDL
(grrh) due to our misbehaving child.
It’s been a heartbreaking three weeks.
Like Larussa on managing, “We are nauseous, having terrible headaches, feel like throwing up, and can’t swallow. And the beauty of it is, we feel like this every day.” (paraphrase)
We can’t get in Fitzy’s head.
For once, he needs to clear the air, write a book, hold a press conference,
appear on KO, leak to Marcy, whatever.
We need to know why?
Why, why, why, why…
Why is Rove on the streets?
EW (shouting this is intentional and meant as praise) YOU ARE GREAT!! Once again the “news dig” of the year!
I knew EW had some big fish on the line last night. Tried for three hours to access the site to read any new posts and just could not get here. Usually, the server kids act up when you reel in a big fish. Glad some of you did get here to digg. I imagine this will go viral today now the site is more functional.
EW you knew this was coming. Like bmaz said, for those of us reading here daily, no surprise but boy a great confirmation nonetheless. And to think it is the tip of the iceberg.
LHP @ 14…me too!!!!
WilliamOckham and Citizen92 in the previous thread did some nice work irt Rove’s email to our famed AP Fournier…Rove used his EOP email and responded in less than one minute.
How many counts could this be against Rove now?
All the more reason to make those calls to DOJ and ask “that” question which is still nagging at us because they cannot seem to give an answer to Marcy . What was that number again and that question? Hmmm…Something about witch hunts as official duties…
I would NOT want to be DOJ now…Gonzo must be out of the country too…
University of Buffalo might want to think about who Edwards is going to debate now…
http://www.buffalonews.com/home/story/384676.html
Another thanks to EW and all here who help some of us come to a deeper understanding of just what is going on within the world of oil/neo theo cons etc
Sept. 26th. Man, that’s a long time to have to wait.
Or, maybe they could move up the date. Wouldn’t be kosher to have KKKarl hauled off the stage by police in the middle of the debate.
Woo hoo! Debate on!
EW:
I wonder how solidly you can make this statement:
“Note, Fitzgerald emphasizes that Rove was trying to fire him…”
I do not see Rove (or Washington) directly implicated in Fitzgerald’s first answers or the June 18 letter to Sanchez:
Here is Sanchez’s Question:
And here Fitz’s first answer:
So Fitzgerald does not here endorse any details of the plot….
The elaborated answer now deals only indirectly with the second part of Sanchez’s question and does not describe any details of the alleged plot.
Fitz talks about the plot to remove him, but never mentions Rove. From what I can tell from your links to the Tribune reporting and blogs the only person to describe Rove’s involvement in the plot is Ali Ata.
The linkage is easy to believe and almost certainly true, but your post’s title and characterization of the letter seems to be pushing the envelope. Or have I missed something? Regardless, it would be great to get Kjellander and Fitz in front of the HJC to elaborate now that Rezko is resolved.
drational
Fair point, because I don’t show my interim logic.
Fitz was asked about whether he learned of efforts to fire him DURING the CIA leak case. His answer was that one person (I think it was Stewart Levine, from the description) had told the FBI about a plot to fire Pat in (probably) 2005. What Levine said probably strongly implicated Kjellander; it’s unclear how strongly it implicated Rove or Denny Hastert (whom Levine has named elsewhere as being involved).
From that, it appears that Fitz did not learn of the other two witnesses–Ata and Maloof–until later.
I think Fitzgerald is simply being very careful to only provide the evidence to which Levine (if it is him) claimed to be a direct witness to–the rest is hearsay. THe thing to do, obviously, would be to haul these guys into HJC to find out what they know. HJC got a statement from Dana Jill Simpson. YOu’d think they’d get statements from the three witnesses here to find out what they knew.
A question for lawyers:
Couldn’t Fitz have recused himself when it came to possibly indicting Rove because of the conflict of interest — “knowing that Rove was trying to get him fired” and any implicit bias therein?
Now maybe it is not exactly recusal, but it seems like he could have asked Judge Reggie for another lawyer to look at Rove’s imvolvement to be fair…
being a fly on the wall would have been nice
Walton had no jurisdiction nor authority to appoint as you suggest. And Fitzgerald was specially appointed by Comey, who was no longer there in that position to do anything else. Gonzales was AG at that point; Fitz himself would have never been appointed under those conditions, much less another special prosecutor to go after Rove.
Folks, I have been tough on Fitz in the past because I thought he should have charged Rove at the time he charged Libby (still do, but whoever upthread said the case against Rove was stronger that Libby is nuts, it most certainly was not, but I think it was viable from what I have seen); but this piling on Fitz because of this report by Marcy is just flat out ill taken. Fitzgerald himself couldn’t do squat about this, and the structure in the AG/DOJ would have been chomping at the bit to shut Fitz down altogether if he made the wrong move. You really have to consider the larger dynamics of the deal.
emptywheel:
The link here is to the wrong post.
;-))))))
(I’ve been wondering whether all the new features and new readers are making the existing squirrels pretty darn tired. But I figure as long as the servers are getting one hell of a workout, that means lots of activity at FDL group. Which is so great.)
I’m going to be chuckling all morning over my vision of tired squirrels racing around the server cluster ;-))
My @66 was intended as response to PJEvans @31.
No clue about the Meet the Bloggers deal, haven’t looked at it yet. As to the other, there are separate charges, different crimes, between lying to a Federal officer (false statements) and perjury. Perjury requires both inconsistent statements to be under oath effectively; false statements does not. That is an overly simplistic description, but sufficient. The bit that offends you as to ability to “cure” the problem applies historically only to perjury, not false statements.
Precisely.