Indictments soon...?

Radar is reporting a rumor that we can only hope is true:

The D.C. rumor mill is thrumming with whispers that 22 indictments are about to be handed down on the outed-CIA agent Valerie Plame case. The last time the wires buzzed this loud — that Tom DeLay would be indicted and would step down from his leadership post in the House — the scuttlebutters got it right.

Can it be a coincidence that the White House appears to be distancing President Bush from embattled aide Karl Rove? "He's been missing in action at more than one major presidential event," a member of the White House press corps tells us.

(Radar's photo of Rove shows him making the "W" symbol with his fingers. I guess the straight-arm salute would have been a little too obvious.)

Another rumor holds that Rove has already received a "target letter," which is a warning that you're about to be hit with an indictment.

The Washington Post reports that Fitzgerald will announce very soon whether or not he intends to bring indictments. Other sources believe that Fitzgerald will bring conspiracy charges. This information comes, apparently, from defense lawyers in the case. (It's worth noting that Rove's lawyer no longer denies that Rove is a target of investigation.) From a piece by Jim VenderHei and Walter Pincus:

Many lawyers in the case have been skeptical that Fitzgerald has the evidence to prove a violation of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act, which is the complicated crime he first set out to investigate, and which requires showing that government officials knew an operative had covert status and intentionally leaked the operative's identity.

But a new theory about Fitzgerald's aim has emerged in recent weeks from two lawyers who have had extensive conversations with the prosecutor while representing witnesses in the case. They surmise that Fitzgerald is considering whether he can bring charges of a criminal conspiracy perpetrated by a group of senior Bush administration officials. Under this legal tactic, Fitzgerald would attempt to establish that at least two or more officials agreed to take affirmative steps to discredit and retaliate against Wilson and leak sensitive government information about his wife. To prove a criminal conspiracy, the actions need not have been criminal, but conspirators must have had a criminal purpose.

Could such a conspiracy involve as many as 22 administration officials? Think Progress had earlier compiled a list of 21 administration officials involved with the scandal: Karl Rove, Scooter Libby, Condoleezza Rice, Stephen Hadley, Andrew Card, Alberto Gonzales, Mary Matalin, Ari Fleischer, Susan Ralston, Israel Hernandez John Hannah, Scott McClellan, Dan Bartlett, Claire Buchan, Catherine Martin, Colin Powell, Karen Hughes, Adam Levine, Bob Joseph, Cheney and Bush.

As most of you know, just a few days ago George Stephanopolis intrigued many when he muttered word from a unnamed source that the probe would result in indictments of Dick and Dubya. A close parsing of the Miller case offers indications that she was protecting someone above Scooter. So who's higher? Well, there's the Man in Charge. And then there's W.

Who, according to report, has been pretty damn high lately.