The Note's Exclusive: Fitzgerald Focusing on Rove

The folks over at The Note are reporting that the two witnesses who testified before the CIA leak grand jury last friday were Susan Ralston and Israel Hernandez, both close aides to Karl Rove. This seems to me to be a fairly strong indication that Fitzgerald is currently probing the veracity of Karl Rove's testimony.

My hunch is that Rove was largely a peripheral figure in the investigation until recently. The initial investigation clearly focused primarily on Scooter Libby, and if I were a betting man, I'd wager that he is still the most likely person to be indicted when all is said and done. But I think that Matt Cooper's testimony may have caused Fitzgerald to rethink Rove's role in this affair. Fitzgerald had said repeatedly that his investigation was all but wrapped up last year, that the only loose ends were Miller and Cooper. The fact that he is still calling witnesses before the grand jury and has even suggested extending the grand jury's term, indicates to me that he is pursuing a new angle, something that hadn't occured to him prior to Cooper's revelations. Rove may have been counting on Cooper staying silent. If so, he may live to regret that decision.