Rumor Has It

Here's some more on the report from Truthout's Jason Leopold (below) that Rove has already been indicted, via Tim Grieve at Salon's War Room:

But did such a meeting take place at all? Both the National Review and the New York Sun say the answer seems to be no. Mark Corallo, the spokesman for Rove's legal team, told the National Review's Byron York that Fitzgerald didn't meet or communicate in any way, anywhere, with any of Rove's representatives Friday -- let alone for 15 hours in Luskin's office -- and didn't inform Rove or his representatives that Rove has been indicted. The Sun carries a similar report, quoting Corallo as saying: "The story is a complete fabrication. It is both malicious and disgraceful."

Leopold is standing by his story, claiming has more than one source to back him up. But this isn't the first time one of Plamegate's Rove "scoops" has been called into question. Last month, Leopold reported that Fitzgerald had sent Luskin a "target letter" informing him that Rove was a target of the grand jury's investigation. When Luskin issued a statement in which he said that Fitzgerald told him that Rove "is not a target," Leopold tried to defend his story by pointing to the fact that the U.S. Attorney's Manual doesn't specify that target notification must come in the form of a letter. "Luskin's assertion that Rove did not receive a target letter does not answer the broader question of whether Rove received notice of any kind," Leopold said. That may have been the broader question, but Leopold had claimed specifically, in the first paragraph of his story, that Fitzgerald had sent Luskin a "target letter." Corallo denied it, and Leopold's defense of his story, at least in our opinion, was entirely unpersuasive.

So could Rove's indictment be imminent? Absolutely. Are we ready to believe that it has already happened? No.