Former Rove ‘gatekeeper’ seeking immunity.
Former Rove ‘gatekeeper’ seeking immunity.
Karl Rove’s former assistant, Susan Ralston, “is currently seeking immunity to testify before Waxman’s committee,” Robert Novak reports. “Ralston is a former assistant to Jack Abramoff, the disgraced Washington super-lobbyist and Republican fund-raiser. … For Waxman, she is a link between Abramoff and Rove. Ralston was deposed behind closed doors prior to her request for immunity. According to her friends, she has nothing to say that would cause problems for Rove.”
Ralston’s quest for immunity may mean nothing, or it could be very bad news for Rove. On the one hand, immunity requests are becoming par for the course in congressional hearings. Monica Goodling of the Justice Department did the same, despite the fact that it would be difficult to suggest that laws were broken in the case of the fired U.S. attorneys. Ralston may be seeking immunity merely for self-protection rather than to nail her former boss, and she could turn out to be a dud for Waxman. Still, there may actually be violations here pertaining to the legal preservation of presidential records.
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Give it to her. It is about time we go straight to the top.
May 16th, 2007 at 8:49 pmJust spill the beans on Rove and become an American hero.
May 16th, 2007 at 8:50 pmWhat the hell, give the cryptkeeper a deal.
May 16th, 2007 at 8:51 pmStop da snitchin’
May 16th, 2007 at 9:00 pmShe worked for KKKarl Rove…she is a crook and knows where some bodies are buried. There has never been, there is not, and there will never be a crook as crooked as that son of a bitch.
May 16th, 2007 at 9:02 pm“She has nothing to say that would cause problems for Rove.”
Which of course means that she’s sweating bullets and doesn’t want to be physically harmed by an unnamed enforcer. But the writing’s on the wall.
Goodling has the same vintage as Ralston. I’d guess the two know one another well — and now that Goodling is scheduled to testify, there are probably some frantic dealis being cut.
Susan, give us Rove and smug DeLay… That’s all I need. The rest of the crowd will self destruct.
May 16th, 2007 at 9:05 pmStop da snitchin’
Comment by Mr. President
Stop da ruination of our country.
May 16th, 2007 at 9:09 pmKnows where all the buried treasure is and which closets have the most skeletons, but to get her to finger the turd would be too much to ask for. But, OK, Please finger the Fu(ker.
May 16th, 2007 at 9:12 pmIs Ralston the one who snitched on Scanlon? Oh I can’t keep track of them all.
May 16th, 2007 at 9:18 pmHere’s the connection between Rove and DeLay (Ralston used to work for DeLay). Interesting.
May 16th, 2007 at 9:47 pmWhat does all these immunity seeking admin people tell you? They’re all criminals. It’s that simple.
May 16th, 2007 at 9:55 pmRalston has been in the middle of this crap for a looooonnnnng time.
May 16th, 2007 at 9:58 pmActually, I don’t think she worked for Delay. She did, however, work for Abrahamoff. She is very dirty.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/11/10/1537/1310
May 16th, 2007 at 9:59 pmScanlon’s girlfriend snitched on him. Ralston is the one who complained so bitterly about Fitz making her life hell during the Plame investigation.
May 16th, 2007 at 10:00 pmRalston used to work for Abramoff, not DeLay, before working for Rove. She also held the title “assistant to the President” for a while.
May 16th, 2007 at 10:01 pmNo doubt, this woman knows a lot…
May 16th, 2007 at 10:14 pmThe article incorrectly suggests Goodling asked for immunity for spurious reasons. Also that immunity is becoming a standard price for Congressional testimony. There’s really nothing to support either contention.
Goodling seems to have had dozens of good reasons to request immunity, few of her reasons have any connection to the US Attorney scandal.
DOJ staffers have recently alleged that Goodling used political favoritism in the hiring of career Justice Department employees. This is clear violation of the law and carries strict criminal penalties.
Reports suggest she used this metric to hire a large number of employees. Goodling could be charged with a separate criminal count for ever single employee she improperly hired. If she were convicted of multiple counts, she could be facing many years of jail time.
I don’t know what laws Ralston has broken, but I cannot imagine her attorney would have recommended she request immunity if she were innocent or ignorant of any crimes. The proffer she apparantly gave would prove this out and would result in a denial of her immunity request.
Unless she can serve up some VERY big fish, I would hope the Congress would ignore her plea for immunity. If she’s criminally involved in the Abramoff scandal, it’s only a matter of time before the investigation turns her way or someone implicates her in a deal with the feds.
May 16th, 2007 at 10:21 pmDavid, she was Abrahamoff AND Rove’s assistant. I don’t know if she can serve up big fish but I am guessing she can cast a wide net.
I thought Goodling did not ask for immunity. I thought Dems gave it to her to make her stop with the 5th BS. Is this wrong?
May 16th, 2007 at 10:25 pmJPark
Reading between the lines, Goodling’s attorney (Dowd) has been trying to get his client immunity from the very start. He used the fifth as the first move in this game. He as much as confirmed his play with his overwhelmingly positive response to Goodling’s immunity grant.
Immunity is quite rare, it’s a true gift for any attorney to get a guilty client completely off the hook. If Goodling doesn’t perjure herself, this should be a very big win for Dowd and Goodling.
Regarding Ralston, I realize she was an assistant to both Abramoff and Rove. Her problem is that her old boss Abramoff is already in jail and is actively cooperating with the feds.
Because of this, any evidence she has on Abramoff is probably old news. If Abramoff has really been telling all, she will have no new dirt to deal. She was just the assistant, Abramoff is the one who knew where all the bodies were buried,
Before she would be granted immunity, Congress would have to be VERY interested in what she has to say. And since her Abramoff information is probably already in the hands of the feds, she’ll have to deliver someone in a different food chain. If she can’t do that, I wouldn’t recommend granting her immunity.
May 16th, 2007 at 10:58 pm#3 ~ funny :)
Absolutely, give her a deal. I hope she buries the whole cabal.
May 16th, 2007 at 10:59 pmShe will sink him like a lead weight.
May 16th, 2007 at 11:01 pmPresident Clinton was almost brought down by the testimony of his secretary too.
Recall,
“Betty Currie told the grand jury that when she came in the next day the president raised his deposition with her and said there were several things she may want to know. He then rattled off in succession, “You were always there when she was there, right?” “We were never really alone.” “You could see and hear everything.” “Monica came on to me, I never touched her, right?” “She wanted to have sex with me, and I can’t do that.”"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/clinton/stories/mccollumtext121098.htm
May 16th, 2007 at 11:07 pmI thought that was his alleged girlfriend’s name?
May 16th, 2007 at 11:34 pmDavid, I agree with you that she should pay for her crimes but she won’t whether they give here immunity or not. I say they play the odds and see if they can roll a 7 on her testimony. They have nothing to lose on her.
May 16th, 2007 at 11:42 pmMy primary point was that I very much doubt Ralston is requesting immunity just for the hell of it. Most high priced DC attorneys would not play that game with an innocent client.
I think she’s either guilty of a crime(s) or has witnessed others in the commission of crimes.
Perhaps she thinks it’s inevitable she’ll be indicted in the Abramoff mess? If so, she may be trying to share what she believes to be important information to avoid going to jail.
Think about this. Her friends say her testimony will do nothing to damage Rove. If this is true, the information she is willing to share probably has nothing to do with the White House. C’mon, if she testifies about ANY wrongdoing in the White House, it will definitely damage Rove.
If what her friends say is accurate, then her information probably concerns the Jack Abramoff mess. But that ship has sailed, Jack has apparently told the feds all their is to tell.
I think she probably has a lot of dirt on the White House and Rove. But if she’s not ready to share it, why in the hell should the Congress give her immunity???
She seems to be scared of prosecution, which means she’s probably scared of the Abramoff prosecutor. If she’s not willing to dish on the White House, let him prosecute her.
May 17th, 2007 at 1:14 amnow, EVERYBODY wants immunity! careful-don’t give it to people that don’t deserve it and don’t pass it out like candy.i hope that lawyers around this country knows what is at stake and can lend SOME measure of expertise on how we can save our Constitution from this hoarde of criminals.
May 17th, 2007 at 9:55 am“she has nothing to say that would cause problems for Rove.”
So why does she need immunity??
May 17th, 2007 at 10:33 amWhen is Sander Burgler going to Jail ?
May 17th, 2007 at 10:46 amstupid me , Sandy Burgler is a Democrat , he gets a free pass
May 17th, 2007 at 10:47 amI say pass immunity out like candy until these criminal war profiteers and disaster leeches are behind bars where they can do our society and the rest of the planet no more harm. This lady is just a suckup cog in the wheel, not the mastermind. He’d be in the White House, and I don’t mean Chimpy.
May 17th, 2007 at 10:53 amShe needs to somehow prove she’s got something worthy. If she’s only trying to get out from under the Abramoff scandal, or some other criminal activity, but has nothing worthy to share, she shouldn’t get it.
But, I’m all for giving her immunity if she’s got info to prove Rove, Bush or the White House Administration in general is guilty of something big.
May 17th, 2007 at 3:18 pm>stupid me , Sandy Burgler is a Democrat , he gets a free pass
explain to me exactly what you think his motive was in Sandy taking COPIES of documents out of somewhere AFTER the presidencey he served was over?
and explain to me how this has anything to do with and organzied conspiracy to obsctruct justice and use illegal standards to hire prosecutors?
May 17th, 2007 at 7:08 pmDESTROY that Bi*ch…
…personally, professionally, economically…
…EVERYWHERE she turns slap her with a citation for BREATHING…
…use a compound electron microscope…
…on her and her family’s tax returns/investments…
…make sure she (nor her husband) can work as a garbage…’er sanitation engineers…
…that bi*ch can be made to sing…
…WITHOUT immunity…
…giving out TOO MUCH immunity….
…let’s too many criminals off the hook…
May 17th, 2007 at 7:22 pm