Despite denials in 2006, Rove reveals he was a target in Plame investigation and close to indictment

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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/11/us/politics/11BAKER.html?pagewanted=2

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Question: You talk more publicly than ever before about the CIA leak case and its effect on you. What was it like being under investigation?

Mr. Rove: I lived a compartmentalized existence where my principal focus had to be on my duties within the White House and I had to focus as much of my time and energy and abilities on that. At the same time, I had an investigation in which the underlying incident, it was pretty clear from the beginning I had no vulnerability on that. When I first met with the FBI and said here’s what I said to Robert Novak, their response was we don’t think we’ll need to talk with you again after two meetings. In fact, at the end, I become a target, I receive a target warning, as it turns out, for nothing connected to my conversation with Robert Novak but whether or not I could recall a conversation with -- if I didn’t recall a conversation with Matt Cooper of Time magazine, why is it that I instructed my staff to go see if there was any evidence in the records of my office of me having talked with him. And the answer is that a colleague of Matt Cooper’s at Time magazine told my lawyer, Matt Cooper says he had a conversation with Rove, so my lawyer said go tell your staff to see if there’s any evidence in the files that you ever had a conversation. And as the prosecutor said, when he finally raised the question after four appearances before the grand jury, when he finally raised that question to my lawyer and my lawyer gave his response, the special prosecutor said, “You’ve rocked my world.”

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/04/26/cia.leak/index.html

Rove testifies again in CIA leak case
Bush political adviser appears before grand jury for 5th time

Wednesday, April 26, 2006; Posted: 10:31 p.m. EDT (02:31 GMT)

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"In connection with this appearance, the Special Counsel has advised Mr. Rove that he is not a target of the investigation. Mr. Fitzgerald has affirmed that he has made no decision concerning charges.

Rove also reveals that Fitzgerald was inclined to indict, and only changed his mind after a final meeting with Luskin...

http://www.mainjustice.com/2010/03/09/rove-recounts-tussles-with-special-prosecutor-patrick-fitzgerald/

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Rove would ultimately appear before the grand jury five times before Fitzgerald decided not to indict him. According to Rove, his fourth appearance before the grand jury, on Oct. 14, 2005, was particularly brutal.

“Fitzgerald machine-gunned me, rattling off topics whose connection to the issue of Valerie Plame I simply did not understand. … I was on the receiving end of the proverbial kitchen sink, complete with pots and pans, rolling pins, dishes and glasses,” Rove wrote. “There’s an old saw that with the right grand jury, a good prosecutor can indict a ham sandwich. When Fitzgerald finished with me, I felt like that ham sandwich.”

After the October grand jury testimony, Fitzgerald called Rove’s lawyer, Robert Luskin, and said they were leaning towards an indictment, Rove wrote. Luskin arranged to fly to Chicago to talk with Fitzgerald about the case and urged the prosecutor to consult with others in the Justice Department. In particular, Luskin recommended Fitzgerald talk to David Margolis, the DOJ’s highest-ranking career official and a 45-year veteran of the department. Fitzgerald eventually decided against contacting Margolis, Rove wrote, but agreed to bring in two other lawyers in the Chicago U.S. attorney’s office who had previously been uninvolved with the case to re-examine his thinking.

In an epic five-hour meeting, Luskin and Fitzgerald hashed out the various aspects of the case against the White House adviser. At the meeting, Fitzgerald said he was bothered by Rove’s non-recollection of the conversation with Cooper. If Rove did not remember the conversation with Cooper, Fitzgerald asked, why did he ask his aides in January 2004 to go through his phone records and notes to find any evidence of contact with Cooper? Luskin had the surprising answer, Rove wrote. The lawyer had learned from a friend who worked at Time that Cooper told colleagues he had spoken with Rove about Plame. Luskin then asked Rove to find any records that might confirm the conversation took place.

“Luskin’s revelation stunned Fitzgerald,” Rove wrote. “‘You rocked my world,’ Fitzgerald told Luskin. The special prosecutor’s intention going into the meeting had been to indict me. Now he didn’t know what he would do.”