Plame Gossip - Rove testifies for the grand jury.

Karl Rove is again testifying before the grand jury, for the fifth time.

Rawstory is also repeating Jason Leopold's earlier reporting as well as their own, that Rove is cooperating with Fitzgerald which could frame this appearance as testimony against someone else. That's an interesting possibility.

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.

None would name the staffers and/or officials whom Rove is providing information about. They did, however, explain that the White House computer system has "real time backup" servers and that while emails were deleted from computers, they were still retrievable from the backup system. By providing the dates and recipient information of the deleted emails, sources say, Rove was able to chart a path for Fitzgerald directly into the office of the Vice President.

UPDATE: Lawrence O'Donnell takes a look at the scuttlebutt and comes to the conclusion that Rove's side requested the appearance and that indicates a belief from Rove's side indictment is imminent.

Also look at the wording from MSNBC,

According to NBC News’ David Shuster, legal sources say Rove volunteered to testify and was not subpoenaed. Rove’s decision followed a recent conversation with Fitzgerald.

To me, that sounds like a man who had the fear of god put in him. Think Fitzgerald laid a trap here to get Rove back on the stand under oath? Did the recent conversation involve the offer of a plea deal? (there is still the open matter of the 250 "missing" emails which seem to have been deleted by someone in the VP's office.)

If this is just Rove's last attempt to craft a story to stay out of the pokey, an indictment may follow very quickly over the next week. If this is part of some plea deal implicating others, the whole thing is going to go quiet again for a long time as Fitzgerald works with the new information. (And, yes I am leaving out the possibility that Rove will testify and clear himself.)

If there is a plea deal in which Rove cooperates, it probably won't be announced, so I think that silence would confirm that Fitzgerald is still hunting "officials in the VP's office." (yep, the big official in the VP's office.)

And, lastly, let's just all say a warm welcome to Tony Snow. As a welcome gift, may I offer you the phrase, "not comment on an ongoing investigation." Go ahead, feel free. It's yours now.