Scooter Indicted…Maybe Not…Yes He Is….Sigh

Don’t know if anyone has been following the ABC News/Drudge war that has been going on for the past few hours, was quite humorous to watch unfold. I posted a timeline of the events if you missed it:

1555hrs – Drudge posts “We have double sourced that the vice president’s chief of staff has been indicted,” a reporter for ABCNEWS claimed to White House communications director Nicolle Wallace this afternoon… MORE…

1610hrs: Drudge then posts “A senior White House source quickly determined ABC was bluffing; the report did not run on the East coast feed of the program.”

1628hrs: Drudge pulls the “double sources” headline and goes to “DC Guessing Game Reaches Fevered Pitch”

1645hrs: Drudge puts the “double sourced” article back up with a few additions such as “ABC NEWS spokesman Jeff Schneider tells the DRUDGE REPORT: “There is nothing at all true about us having double sourced anything” regarding indictments.”

1649hrs: Raw Story reporting: Jeffrey Schneider, Vice President of Communications for ABC News, denied a claim from the conservative Drudge Report that any reporter had called the White House to say that Dick Cheney’s chief of staff “Scooter” Libby had been indicted, RAW STORY can report.

“Absolutely not true,” Schneider said from his cell phone Tuesday evening.

“We have no such reporting,” he added.

(How this liberal blog has the cell phone number of the VP of Communications at ABC is for another day)

1702hrs: ABC news reports nothing about the “indictments” at the top of its 2000hrs EST broadcast.

1758hrs: Drudge puts up ” CBS? JOHN ROBERTS: Lawyers familiar with the case think Wednesday is when special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald will make known his decision, and that there will be indictments. Supporters say Rove and the vice president?s chief of staff, Scooter Libby, are in legal jeopardy…”

1835hrs: Drudge adds “FT: Indictments in CIA leak case ?about to be handed down?… “CIA leak investigators hold last-minute interviews”

1903hrs: Drudge adds ” SPECIAL COUNSEL SEEKS MORE INFO IN CIA PROBE: NYT /// ‘ Fitzgerald is still to be trying to determine whether Rove had been fully forthcoming about his contacts… Fitzgerald spent the day in Washington and summoned his team, including his chief FBI investigator, Jack Eckenrode, for what appeared to be a final round of discussions about how to proceed’… MORE… “

This commentor at Free Republic has an interesting take on how this fiasco happened tonight:

A) ABC reporter went on ‘phishing’ expedition with the WH communication director

B) ABC in prep of this ‘expected’ to run it on their nightly newscast, and someone in the studio was the ‘2nd source’

C) The ‘first source’ was the WH communications director who notified drudge of the phishing attempt in the 1st place

D) WHILE the reporter was returning ’empty handed’ DRUDGE posted the story

E) Later DRUDGE found they didn’t run with it and either the WH tricked him, or ABC was denying they ever went ‘phishing’ and tried to pull the link

F) Saw references to it here and direct links still hitting the URL and re-posted it to at least get ‘honesty points’

G) ABC will continue to deny they ever went phishing, WH will not put the original source out to refute ABC lying about their involvement (ABC knows this and so are confident in their ‘denial’) — Also possible the reporter was on their own or ‘sub-contracting’ with raw story on it. Thats my theoretical timeline

“We have double sourced that the vice president’s chief of staff has been indicted,” a reporter for ABCNEWS claimed to a White House press spokesman this afternoon.

The White House refused to comment on the claim. The network said they didn’t need comment, they were preparing to run with the development on this evening’s network news broadcast, sources tell the DRUDGE REPORT.

ABCNEWS claimed to the White House that it had double sourced how an indictment against vice presidential chief of staff I. Lewis Libby was set.

Also, Krissy Matthews spewed a TON of misinformation tonight about this whole thing. At one point stating that everyone “knows” Rove sent Wilson to Niger plus that Rove supressed Wilson’s “truthful” report just to go to war. Will update with the transcript when it’s up.

I think the lib’s are in meltdown phase.

UPDATE

Dont forget how trustworthy ABC News can be.

UPDATE 2110hrs

As you can tell I stopped updating a few hours ago, it’s apparent that no one knows what’s going to happen except Fitz…so waiting till then.

UPDATE 10/27 1915hrs

And we’re back on again…this appeared on Drudge at 1915hrs

Karl Rove, President Bush’s senior adviser and deputy chief of staff, will not be charged on Friday, but would remain under investigation, people briefed officially about the case said… Libby Jr., Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, braced for an indictment on Friday charging him with making false statements to the grand jury… MORE…

This is from the NYT:

WASHINGTON, Oct. 27 – Associates of I. Lewis Libby Jr., Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, expected an indictment on Friday charging him with making false statements to the grand jury in the C.I.A. leak inquiry, lawyers in the case said Thursday.

Karl Rove, President Bush’s senior adviser and deputy chief of staff, will not be charged on Friday, but will remain under investigation, people briefed officially about the case said. As a result, they said, the special counsel in the case, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, was likely to extend the term of the federal grand jury beyond its scheduled expiration on Friday.

I guess Fitzgerald has decided to overlook the treason committed by Plame, Wilson and the rest of the rogue CIA agents.

1940hrs – WASH POST: Libby shopping for a white-collar criminal lawyer… MORE…

If these “leaks” made to the press are true then this a complete defeat for the lib’s. No one gets indicted for the supposed crime this grand jury was seated for, instead Fitz is on a fishing expedition and will look like a fool in the end.