From
here:
First, Luskin claims that Fitzgerald told him that Rove was not a "target" of the investigation. In the context of a federal criminal investigation, a target is a term of art used very carefully by federal prosecutors and reserved only for those involved in an investigation that the prosecutor presently deems a "putative" defendant. It does not mean, as Luskin would have us believe, that his client is out of the woods (and he surely knows better).
Here is the official DOJ definition: "A 'target' is a person as to whom the prosecutor or the grand jury has substantial evidence linking him or her to the commission of a crime and who, in the judgment of the prosecutor, is a putative defendant." There are two other categories of persons in a grand jury investigation: "subjects" and "witnesses." A subject is someone who falls within the scope of the grand jury's investigation and may very well have criminal exposure, but the prosecutor cannot yet conclude that the person is a target. A witness is someone who the prosecutor is ready to rule out as a subject or target. It is CRITICAL that Fitzgerald apparently did not say that Rove was not a target OR a subject. If Rove was truly in the clear, Fitzgerald would have said so and designated him as a witness (and Luskin would surely have told us). This means that Rove is a subject of the investigation and could soon become a target depending on the information contained in Time's documents.
The question I would like to ask is "It has been stated that Mr. Rove is not a target of the investigation. Is he a subject? Or is he merely a witness?