Rove Attorney: Sure, People Wanted Fitzgerald Canned, But Rove Never Followed UpI noted as an update to my earlier post that Karl Rove’s attorney Robert Luskin had told The Chicago Tribune that Rove did not recall Republican bigwig Bob Kjellander or “anyone else arguing for Fitzgerald’s removal.”
I spoke to Luskin just now, and he said that his statement ought to be qualified a bit: his statement on Kgellander stands as is, he said, but during the independent counsel investigation, he said, Rove was “frequently” approached about canning Fitzgerald: “a number of people approached Karl and suggested that Fitzgerald be removed because of the alleged politicization of the investigation, but he never took any follow-up steps except to say that I can’t talk about that. He didn’t want to do anything seen as compromising Fitzgerald’s independence.” Those approaches, Luskin said, came during fundraisers or other political events “in an unsolicited way…. Karl simply never responded and did not take any action.”