Was It Rove?

The Associated Press reports prosecutors have accepted an offer from Karl Rove to testify in the Plame outing investigation and have warned they cannot guarantee he won't be indicted:

The U.S. attorney's manual requires that prosecutors not bring witnesses before a grand jury if there is a possibility of future criminal charges unless the witnesses are notified in advance that their testimony can be used against them in a later indictment.

Rove has already made at least three grand jury appearances and his return at this late stage in the investigation is unusual.

The prosecutor did not give Rove similar warnings before his earlier grand jury appearances.

[. . .]

Before accepting the offer, Fitzgerald sent correspondence to Rove's legal team making clear that there was no guarantee he wouldn't be indicted at a later point, as required by the rules.

According to the Associated Press, Rove's attorney, said he had been assured no decisions on charges had been made. Rove would first have to receive what is known as a target letter if he is about to be indicted:

"I can say categorically that Karl has not received a target letter from the special counsel. The special counsel has confirmed that he has not made any charging decisions in respect to Karl," Luskin said.

He said that Rove "continues to be cooperative voluntarily" with the investigation and "beyond that, any communication I have or may have in the future are going to be treated as completely confidential."

New York University law professor Stephen Gillers, is quoted as saying, "that this is "an ominous sign" for Rove:

"It suggest Fitzgerald has learned new information that is tightening the noose," Gillers said. "It shows Fitzgerald now, perhaps after Miller's testimony, suspects Rove may be in some way implicated in the revelation of Plame's identity or that Fitzgerald is investigating various people for obstruction of justice, false statements or perjury."

Comments

[stevesturm]

But wasn't Miller called to testify about her conversations with Libby? How would that implicate Rove?