Plame update

It's been conjectured (I can't find the link but I think it was Josh Marshall) that the reason Fitzgerald has been pursuing the Plame investigation this confidently must have been that he had gotten a definitive account of the leak very early on from a single source, one that contradicted the early testimonies of Rove, Libby, et al. I think most people agree that, at least early on, it didn't look like there had been a real crime committed, so it now stands to reason that Fitzgerald may have been pursuing perjury or conspiracy charges all along.

That "definitive" source may have been Robert Novak. WaPo gives only a paragraph to it, but here it is:

A critical early success for Fitzgerald was winning the cooperation of Robert D. Novak, the Chicago Sun-Times columnist who named Plame in a July 2003 story and attributed key information to "two senior administration officials." Legal sources said Novak avoided a fight and quietly helped the special counsel's inquiry, although neither the columnist nor his attorney have said so publicly.

(via atrios)

Also, this, from Josh Marshall sounds like Libby is getting sent to sleep with the fishes, though interestingly enough not from a legal standpoint, but a public relations one.