Raw Story reports, and Steve Clemons of the Washington Note confirms through a source close to Karl Rove, that it was Rove who tipped off Fitzgerald to the 250 pages of deleted e-mails in Vice President Cheney's offices relevant to the Valerie Plame investigation.

According to several Pentagon sources close to Rove and others familiar with the inquiry, Bush's senior adviser tipped off Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald to information that led to the recent "discovery" of 250 pages of missing email from the office of Vice President Dick Cheney. According to one source close to the case, Rove is providing information on deleted emails, erased hard drives and other types of obstruction by staff and other officials in the Vice President's office. Pentagon sources close to Rove confirmed this account.

From Drudge, via Vanity Fair: Former Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee names Richard Armitage as Bob Woodward's source for the Valerie Plame leak. Question: Does this also make him Bob Novak's source?

THE WASHINGTON POST's famous Watergate editor Ben Bradlee claims that it was former State Department Deputy Secretary Richard Armitage who was the individual who leaked the identity of CIA official Valerie Plame.

A 19 page affidavit (pdf) by Patrick Fitzgerald was unsealed today in the Scooter Libby case. It appears that Bob Woodward may have tape-recorded his conversation with his source because the affidavit refers to a transcript of the conversation.

The affidavit also makes it pretty clear that Woodward's source and Novak's as-yet unidentified source are the same. Editor and Publisher reports:

Woodward suddenly revealed late last year that he had talked with Libby as well as another unnamed government official about CIA operative Valerie Plame, the wife of former Ambassador Joe Wilson. Earlier, columnist Robert Novak had also said he had an unnamed second source.

One paragraph in Thursday's filing, NBC reported, indicates that the unnamed official spoke both with Woodward and Novak, and "Libby has been given a redacted transcript of the conversation between Woodward and [redacted] and Novak has published an account briefly describing the conversation with his first confidential source [redacted]."

A few weeks ago, Knights Ridder reported on a reorganization within the State Department, led by Fred Fleitz and Robert Joseph, which bypassed career weapons experts.

Jason Leopold reports today that among those frozen out were whistleblowers in the Valerie Plame investigation. These experts, who prefer to remain anonymous, say their cooperation with Fitzgerald led to their changes in status.

Larisa Alexandrovna of Raw Story breaks important news today: Intelligence officials say that at the time of her outing as a CIA employee/operative, she was "part of an operation tracking distribution and acquisition of weapons of mass destruction technology to and from Iran."

Speaking under strict confidentiality, intelligence officials revealed heretofore unreported elements of Plame's work. Their accounts suggest that Plame's outing was more serious than has previously been reported and carries grave implications for U.S. national security and its ability to monitor Iran's burgeoning nuclear program.

...Intelligence sources would not identify the specifics of Plame's work. They did, however, tell RAW STORY that her outing resulted in "severe" damage to her team and significantly hampered the CIA's ability to monitor nuclear proliferation.

This is one of those long ones intended for the seriously PlameGate afflicted:

There's lots of speculation going on about the recently published redacted affidavit of Patrick Fitzgerald in the Judith Miller/Matthew Cooper subpoena case respecting the leak of Valerie Plame's identity. Jane at Firedoglake has a compilation of links to all the recent documents in the case. These are among the latest documents released (pdf):

• The judge's February 2005 decision in the Miller case, with parts of formerly redacted portions in italics on pages 30-39.
• Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's Aug. 27, 2004 affidavit in the Miller case, released in conjunction with the appeals court's document.
• The appeals court order from Feb. 3, 2006 unsealing "in significant part" the redacted pages of a judge's decision in the case.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuithas issued a per curiam opinionorder unsealing portions of Circuit Judge David S. Tatel's previously redacted opinion concurring in the judgment in the Judith Miller Grand Jury subpoena case. You can access the newly-reissued, partially-unredacted opinion at this link (pdf). [Via How Appealing]

Investigative reporter Murray Waas has a new article on PlameGate up at the National Journal. Shorter version: What comes after PlameGate and RoveGate? Maybe CheneyGate.

Murray reconstructs the May - July, 2003 timeline, and supplies additional details. After previewing Murray's article below, I am going to add another dot that I find significant, one I've written about several times, Cheney, Libby and Catherine Martin's July 12th plane ride to Norfolk, VA to commemorate the U.S.S. Reagan.

From Think Progess:

In a letter to Scooter Libby's lawyers, Patrick Fitzgerald says he has learned "that many e-mails from Cheney's office at the time of the Plame leak in 2003 have been deleted contrary to White House policy."

Why am I not surprised. But, Kevin writes it's time for some followup. I think it's time for Fitz to expand the scope of his investigation.

Update: Raw Story has a copy of Fitzgerald's letter (pdf) advising of the e-mails.

Reporter Jason Leopold has new details of the current focus of Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation into PlameGate, many of which were provided to him by those with personal knowledge of the investigation and who have appeared before the grand jury. He writes that the Niger documents are an issue, as are the activities of the White House Iraq Group and Karl Rove. In other words, a conspiracy investigation is very much underway.

Rove first:

All of the sources interviewed separately for this story said they were told that Karl Rove was the person who first suggested using the media to "turn the tables on Wilson." The officials wouldn't identify the person who told them this. The decision, however, was made during a meeting that took place between the White House Iraq Group.

...Lawyers close to the leak case said Fitzgerald seems to be pursuing conspiracy charges against some of the higher-profile suspects in the leak, such as Rove.

Jason Leopold has an update on RoveGate and quotes Luskin yesterday as saying,

"I think it's fair to say that there is no change in [Rove's] status. He is not a target of the investigation, but there remains an open investigation," Luskin said.

Jason also writes:

....sources knowledgeable about the case against Rove say that he was offered a plea deal in December and that Luskin had twice met with Fitzgerald during that time to discuss Rove's legal status. Rove turned down the plea deal, which would likely have required him to provide Fitzgerald with information against other officials who were involved in Plame's outing as well as testifying against those people, the sources said.

Luskin would neither confirm nor deny that a meeting with Fitzgerald took place last month.

Jane is disappointed there is no Fitzmas news, so she reports on what she thinks is happening. Here's one insight.

The nomination of Viveca Novak’s husband to the FEC is nothing if not a giant “f**ck you” to Fitz, and if it happened in say the Gotti organization it would definitely raise the eyebrows of a prosecutor. It’s also a big “who’s your daddy” moment for Viveca Novak, as she is probably out of a job and now the key defense witness for a man who is now going to be her husband’s boss. Those who want to argue they nominated him purely on his merits with no notion of any larger implication? Please. This is Karl Rove we’re talking about here.

Viveca's husband is Robert D. Lenhard. His nomination was announced by the White House here. I also find the appointment curious, especially since Mr. Lenhard donated $1,000. to John Kerry in 2004. [Update: A commenter below points out that Lenhard was Harry Reid's choice to fill a Democratic slot on the FEC months ago, as reported last August in the Hill. It's Congressional leadership that picks the nominees, Bush just follows through with the appointment. So scratch that theory.]