The SIMPLE Question the press should keep asking (re: Rove)

[brooklynite]

If, as is now being suggested, Karl Rove either didn't break the letter of the law (either didn't reveal specific name or didn't do so with "intent") or, didn't KNOWINGLY break the law (didn't know information was classified, etc), since he's not guilty of anything, and since he know the President wanted the leaker's name revealed, why didn't he simply admit his mistake when it happened? Why make the government incur the time and expense of an investigation?

[Debi]

1. My question is....Who is Judith Miller's source?

Since it's not KR?

[jarnocan]

2. Who ALL was involved in this conspiracy?

consortiumnews.com has a good article on this concerning the 'Need to Know' information etc.-of course this is moving pretty fast today.
this was a definate plan to discredit, intimidate and punish.
her name was leaked,her cover blown, even if it isn't in Cooper's e-mails specifically- it still happend. We don't have all Fitzgerald's details, I sincerely hope he stays healthy, strange thing have happend in the BushINc.'s past.

[Totally Committed]

3. I was always told in Civics Class:

Ignorance of the law is not excuse when you break it. I don't think for a minute that Rove DID NOT do this crime. I think he did it, he knew what he was doing, and had full knowlege of the law, and broke it anyway.

That having been said, if he tries to hide behind the "I didn't know" defense, my civics teracher always said that that doesn't matter. Even if you have no knowledge of the law, if you break it, you lack of knowledge is not defense.

TC

[Igel]

4. It's not knowledge of the law; it's

knowledge of Plame's status that the issue in 'knowingly.'

The law concerning revealing intelligence assets states you have to not only do certain things to run afoul of it, you have to *know* certain things. It makes for a very high bar in prosecution.

It may be that the prosecutor has some other law up his sleeve, or he wants to make sure that he can't prove Rove (or somebody else--it's not like he's investigating Rove per se) knew enough to be indictable. An intelligence asset was compromised, and in true prosecutorial zeal, he may just think that if he can make somebody pay, he will.