"what's an indictment?"

* reddhedd describes some of the general legal technicalities in the traitorgate case - such as "what's an indictment?" - the good news is that "one indictment" really means nothing of the sort.
UPDATE: Jeralyn discusses the mechanics of plea bargaining

* jeralyn: "If Karl Rove turns down a deal, I suspect it's because Fitzgerald wasn't willing to agree to a reduction to probation or home detention. I think Karl Rove would bet the farm before agreeing to a jail sentence." (link)

* "In a last-minute flurry of interviews, FBI agents this week canvassed Plame's neighborhood to see if anyone knew about her covert work for the spy agency before she was exposed in a July 2003 newspaper column by Robert Novak." (link)
i so dont get this. apart from why this is being done so late (even tho it may have been done before), why ask neighbours, rather than friends?

* froomkin: "But think it through, and it seems obvious that the Miers withdrawal was timed not to distract from the indictments, but rather to be quickly overshadowed by them.
As Candy Crowley suggested on CNN, if there are indeed indictments tomorrow, the Miers withdrawal will be quickly forgotten. That wipes the slate clean, more or less, and gives President Bush an opportunity to pivot away from the leak scandal with a new Supreme Court nomination sometime in the next week or two." (link)
that argument doesnt seem to stand up.

* further to my comments yesterday about Ralston, the NYT has an article about her: "Ms. Ralston has been interviewed by investigators in the Abramoff case, which is examining Mr. Abramoff's work on behalf of Indian tribes and other lobbying interests, as well as his complicated financial arrangements. She worked for him, first at the firm Preston Gates Ellis & Rouvelas Meeds and then at the firm Greenberg Traurig, before she moved to the White House early in President Bush's first term.
Ms. Ralston has also testified at least twice before the grand jury in the leak case." (link)

* wsj: "But the fallout for the Bush administration could be even wider, given the high-profile nature of the case and the pressure Mr. Fitzgerald will be under to support whatever actions he takes. It is expected that any indictments will be very detailed and discuss the involvement of other White House officials who aren't being charged.
"In this case, an indictment could cause serious reputational damage to unindicted officials by describing their roles, criminal or not, in what appears to have been an orchestrated effort to unfairly discredit Wilson in order to clear the way for an increasingly unpopular war," said former New York prosecutor David Pitofsky, now in private practice." (link)
oh sweet. so sweet.