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Jason Leopold: Still Confident About Rove Indictment Article

Beleaguered investigative reporter Jason Leopold was on the Ed Schultz radio show yesterday, defending his Truthout article that Karl Rove has been indicted. He sounds very confident. You can listen here.

Jason told Schultz that on Saturday he got a phone call from his sources telling him that the action Friday was not at the courthouse, but at Patton Boggs. They provided an extraordinary level of detail about what took place at the law firm.

Jason is continuing to receive new details. He said that yesterday, he was told that the entire 4th floor of Patton Boggs was locked down for the marathon meeting. He reiterated his prior information, that Rove was there with his secret service detail, that plea negotiations were going on which ultimately were rejected outright, after which he was given an envelope containing the Indictment and told he had 24 hours to get his affairs in order.

Jason said he believed by Saturday night, his article would break in the Washington Post, New York Times and other papers. He noted that yesterday, at Rove’s NEI speech, only one reporter asked him about CIA leak case. No one had bothered to follow up on the story. No one asked him if he had been indicted.

Jason says he confirmed the story with more than 2 sources. He says Knights- Ridder, MSNBC and ABC News now have one source for the story.

He said that these same sources are repsonsible for his being able to break the story about the 250 pages of e-mail documents turned over to Fitzgerald in February.

Schultz asked him if he thought he was being attacked by blogs because of jealousy. He responded that it’s not jealousy, it’s hatred.

Jason said he does not believe he was set up. He still believes in his article, and reminds Ed that it said the indictment would be announced sometime this week.

Jason also is checking on Fitzgerald’s whereabouts Friday, and said he is going to check every vet within 20 miles of Luskin’s house to see if he really was there with his cat.

Jason said he is upset that some have accused him of lying. He would have no motive to lie. His goal was to get the story, not to bs anyone.

So, two questions that should be easy to answer that could shed light on whether Jason’s sources are accurate:

1. Does Patton Boggs in D.C. have a 4th floor? Or does it occupy four floors or more of an office tower?
2. Does Karl Rove have a secret service detail? According to the Secret Service website,

…Today, the Secret Service is authorized by law to protect:

* the President, the Vice President, (or other individuals next in order of succession to the Office of the President), the President-elect and Vice President-elect;
* the immediate families of the above individuals;
* former Presidents, their spouses for their lifetimes, except when the spouse re-marries. In 1997, Congressional legislation became effective limiting Secret Service protection to former Presidents for a period of not more than 10 years from the date the former President leaves office.
* children of former presidents until age 16;
* visiting heads of foreign states or governments and their spouses traveling with them, other distinguished foreign visitors to the United States, and official representatives of the United States performing special missions abroad;
* major Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates, and their spouses within 120 days of a general Presidential election.

Then there’s the question of why would Fitzgerald be conducting plea negotiations if the indictment had already been handed down? On that one, overlooking the issue of whether Fitzgerald would disclose a sealed indictment to Luskin and Rove before it was unsealed by the Court unless he also had obtained the Court’s permission to do so, I can see one possible scenario.

Perhaps Rove had been indicted on perjury and false statement charges, and Fitz was offering to let him plead to those counts, with a sentence concession for his cooperation, and letting him know that if he didn’t accept the deal, he’d be going back to the grand jury and asking them to indict on obstruction of justice as well. Perhaps the 24 hours to get his affairs in order had to do with 24 hours to accept or reject the plea offer. (After all, it’s not like Rove would be going to jail on Monday even if there was an Indictment. Like Libby, he’d get a personal recognizance bond. ) Even if Rove decided to reject the offer on Friday, at the end of the marathon session and didn’t need until Monday, the earliest Fitz could go back to the grand jury for the indictment on the additional count would be today. The grand jury that is hearing the CIA leaks case meets Wednesdays and Fridays.

Jason says his sources are clear the indictment tendered to Rove was already voted on by the grand jury. Is it possible that Fitzgerald didn’t file it with the clerk of the court, but provided a copy to the Judge with a motion to seal it and a motion to allow him to share it with Rove and Luskin? Will we ever know? See, Libby’s Indictment (copy of filed indictment here.) The first page contains the date it was filed with the Court and the date in 2003 the grand jury was sworn in. The last page contains signatures for the grand jury foreperson and Fitzgerald, but not the dates the signatures were placed there.

Both Mark Corallo and Robert Luskin were very specific, emphatic and believable in their denials to me. But I also believe Jason that his sources have provided him this information. Which leads me back to wondering whether his sources were being truthful and accurate.

I’m also wondering why Fitzgerald spokesperson Randall Samborn won’t disclose whether Fitz was in Chicago or Washington on Friday. Why is that a secret?