Move Along -- Nothing To See Here (Yet)

Anyone out there expecting TreasonGate indictments to be handed down this week can relax for a while:

The special counsel in the C.I.A. leak case has told associates he has no plans to issue a final report about the results of the investigation, heightening the expectation that he intends to bring indictments, lawyers in the case and law enforcement officials said yesterday.

The prosecutor, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, is not expected to take any action in the case this week, government officials said. A spokesman for Mr. Fitzgerald, Randall Samborn, declined to comment.

A final report had long been considered an option for Mr. Fitzgerald if he decided not to accuse anyone of wrongdoing, although Justice Department officials have been dubious about his legal authority to issue such a report.

By signaling that he had no plans to issue the grand jury's findings in such detail, Mr. Fitzgerald appeared to narrow his options either to indictments or closing his investigation with no public disclosure of his findings, a choice that would set off a political firestorm.

Meanwhile, a few more morsels of information regarding Fitzgerald's investigation have been tossed our way. Larry Johnson had this to say on his blog:

Had lunch today with a person who has a direct tie to one of the folks facing indictment in the Plame affair. There are 22 files that Fitzgerald is looking at for potential indictment . These include Stephen Hadley, Karl Rove, Lewis Libby, Dick Cheney, and Mary Matalin (there are others of course). Hadley has told friends he expects to be indicted. No wonder folks are nervous at the White House.

The Hadley stuff is pretty interesting. Could it be that perhaps Stephen Hadley has received one of those target letters from Fitzgerald? Steve Soto at The Left Coaster has this question:

Yes folks, the National Security Advisor expects to be indicted for activities he allegedly undertook while he was Number Two to our current Secretary of State. So can someone tell me how Condi skates if Hadley gets nailed?

Karl Rove must also think that indictments are headed his way -- he's cancelled his plans to attend two Republican fundraisers.

Meanwhile, Murray Waas has the goods on why Scooter Libby is in so much trouble:

Evidence indicating that Libby or his attorney may have tried to discourage or influence Miller's testimony is significant for two reasons, outside legal experts say. First, attempting to influence a witness's testimony might in and of itself constitute obstruction of justice or witness-tampering, said the experts.

More important, evidence that Libby might have tried to discourage Miller's testimony has put Libby's testimony in a worse light, according to government officials briefed on the matter. Potentially misleading and incomplete answers by Libby to federal investigators are less likely to be explained away as the result of his faulty memory or inadvertent mistakes, the sources said.