Karl Rove: Will he tell, or not?

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Rove Will Cooperate With Federal Probe Into US Attorney Firings

Huffington Post

February 1, 2009

Karl Rove will cooperate with a federal criminal inquiry underway into the firings of nine U.S. attorneys and has already spoken to investigators in a separate, internal DOJ investigation into the prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, his attorney said in an interview...more

A couple of days before, in the Washington Post, Dan Froomkin wrote that President Bush had written letters saying that Rove should not testify. These letters were dated just before Obama took office:

"On Jan. 16, 2009, then White House Counsel Fred Fielding sent a letter to Rove's lawyer, Robert Luskin. The message: should his client receive any future subpoenas, Rove 'should not appear before Congress' or turn over any documents relating to his time in the White House. The letter told Rove that President Bush was continuing to assert executive privilege over any testimony by Rove—even after he leaves office." (see article)

According to Froomkin, Peter Shane, a law professor at Ohio State University stated: 

"'To my knowledge, these [letters] are unprecedented,' said Peter Shane, an Ohio State University law professor who specializes in executive-privilege issues. 'I'm aware of no sitting president that has tried to give an insurance policy to a former employee in regard to post-administration testimony.' Shane likened the letter to Rove as an attempt to give his former aide a 'get-out-of-contempt-free card'."

It will be interesting to see how this pans out as Bush continues to surprise us, even after he's hiding away somewhere in Dallas.