It's confirmed: Rove is STILL under investigation

I'm finally watching ABC News' World News Tonight and they're describing how Patrick Fitzgerald caught Scooter Libby lying. Scooter said that Tim Russert told him about Plame and that Scooter did not mention Plame to Matt Cooper of Judith Miller.

Then they show a clip of Fitzgerald say the following about Libby:

He was at the beginning of the chain of the phone calls [to the reporters], the first official to disclose this information outside the government to a reporter.

Did you catch that? Libby was the FIRST official to disclose Valerie Plame's identity outside the government to a reporter. So Fitzgerald sounds like he just confirmed that he did in fact find evidence that a second US government official disclosed Plame's identity to a reporter. We assume that the second official, of course, would be Karl Rove.

Whether or not we all just "know" that Karl disclosed her identity to a reporter, especially because the papers say his lawyer told them as much, it's quite another thing for the Republican special prosecutor to confirm that fact.

Then take a look at tomorrow's Washington Post story that just came out minutes ago (I was literally about to publish this point when Joe called to alert me to the Post article):

Karl Rove, the president's top strategist, narrowly escaped indictment after providing new information during eleventh-hour negotiations with Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald but could still be charged in the case, according to three people familiar with the talks. A source close to Rove said the senior strategist's fate will be known soon....

The 22-page indictment leaves open the possibility of more bad news to come: the specter of a public trial featuring top White House officials and the chance of more indictments in the weeks ahead....

If he decides to seek charges against Rove, Fitzgerald would present the evidence to a new grand jury because the one that indicted Libby expired yesterday and its term cannot be extended.

"The Special Counsel has advised Mr. Rove that he has made no decision about whether or not to bring charges," Rove's attorney, Robert Luskin, said in a statement....

A source close to Rove added, "There is still the chance that Mr. Rove could face indictment." Lawyers involved in the case said Fitzgerald is likely to put pressure on Libby to provide evidence against Rove or other potential targets.

That melds perfectly with Fitzgerald talking today about the "first" official.

And finally, why were other government officials today referred to as "the vice president, someone from the White House press office, an undersecretary at State," while Karl Rove was refered to in the indictment as "Official A." That sounds like the kind of term you use for a co-conspirator who you don't want to mention yet.

I'm not counting my eggs yet, but this is getting very interesting.