The Phantom Frogmarch

As I suspected with this last weekend's flurry of email activity over Jason Leopold's Truthout story about Rove's indictment in the PlameGate saga (see here and here), not much has come of it. Not that it won't. There's always hope. But as I've noted before, Leopold has often been a bit to speculative in his reporting. Here's Tim Grieve from Salon's War Room with some more on his publishing history within the PlameGate context (it's a long post that has a lot to say about Leopold's reporting history in toto):

[W]e've been skeptical of Leopold's Plamegate reporting anyway.

Some of our skepticism stems from Leopold's reports of his own troubled past. Leopold has told us, "Just because I have a past or made a mistake does not mean I am unable to cultivate sources or continue reporting."

Some of our skepticism comes from what seems like a too-good-to-be-true quality in Leopold's reporting: As Daou asks, "How is Leopold the only reporter in America with access" to the sources he claims to have? Leopold has told us that he has "really, really good sources" who have been "dead on" when it comes to Plamegate news.

And some of our skepticism comes from Leopold reporting that hasn't panned out. When we wrote in December 2005 that we thought some of Leopold's work for Raw Story was implausible, Raw Story editor John Byrne posted a response in which he defended much of Leopold's reporting but said that three stories hadn't been confirmed: a report that Cheney aide John Hannah was "given orders by higher-ups in Cheney's office to leak Plame's covert status and identity in an attempt to muzzle Wilson"; a report involving the Plamegate role allegedly played by Rove assistant Susan Ralston; and a story published days before Scooter Libby was indicted that said that special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald had asked the grand jury to indict Rove; that Fitzgerald had asked the grand jury to indict Libby on charges of perjury, obstruction of justice and outing Plame; and that two other government officials were likely to be indicted as well. When Libby was indicted the following Friday -- not that Wednesday or Thursday, as Leopold's reporting had predicted -- Libby wasn't charged with outing Plame, Rove wasn't indicted at all, and there was no sign of the two mystery officials.

Leopold hasn't written for Raw Story since January -- Byrne declined to comment on his departure, saying he couldn't discuss "personnel matters" -- but questions about the reporter's work have followed him to Truthout. Leopold's reporting for the site has sometimes been at odds with reports in the mainstream press or statements from Rove's camp.

[...]

Leopold and Truthout's Marc Ash have defended Leopold's latest story elsewhere, and Ash stood hard by the story when we talked to him today. He insisted that the grand jury has voted to indict Rove on charges of perjury and lying to federal investigators, that Fitzgerald showed Luskin such an indictment in the early morning hours Saturday, and that the grand jury is still considering whether to charge Rove with obstruction of justice as well. "There will be paperwork on this," Ash said, "and when that paperwork comes available, it will be dated." How can he be sure of Leopold's story? "We did our homework," Ash said. "We are correct, and we are standing on the eventual paperwork that will come out of this."