Rove’s right-hand man/woman to appear AGAIN before Fitz

Top Rove aide ‘critical’ in CIA probe

Ralston, Rove’s right-hand man,(turns out Rove's right-hand man is actually a woman) is scheduled to appear again before Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald who is investigating the circumstances surrounding the leak of Plame’s identity in the media.

I just caught this story from Philippine News Online:

Apparently because Susan Ralston is Filipino, the foreign news service likes to keep track of her.

There is no mention of when she is expected to meet with Fitzgerald, but it makes it clear to me that Fitz isn't done with Rove yet. ...

http://www2.boomantribune.com/story/2005/11/9/10215/4730
http://www.rawstory.com/

It's just a matter of time before this winds up before another GJ. As a living link between several enormous GOP scandals, Ralston is sure to be a star witness. She is surely someone we will be hearing more about. Is Fitz still deciding whether to "borrow" another GJ?

This from the WasPost, Sept. 23, about the Abramoff scandal and its links to the collapse of Tyco Int'l:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/22/AR2005092202204.html

Tyco Exec: Abramoff Claimed Ties to Administration

By R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 23, 2005; Page A06

Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff bragged two years ago that he was in contact with White House political aide Karl Rove on behalf of a large, Bermuda-based corporation that wanted to avoid incurring some taxes and continue receiving federal contracts, according to a written statement by President Bush's nominee to be deputy attorney general.

SNIP

Lobbying disclosure statements filed by Abramoff listing his work for Tyco cite the "Executive Office of the President" as one of his lobbying targets on the tax and contracts issues. Others were the Department of Commerce, the General Services Administration and Congress. Greenberg Traurig records submitted to Tyco describe specific contacts with the White House legislative office, a source familiar with the matter said yesterday.

Rove's personal assistant at the time, Susan Ralston, formerly worked as Abramoff's secretary. It could not be learned yesterday whether she was among those contacted by any of the 14-person Greenberg team recorded as working on the Tyco account.

The Philippine News has more in an article today about this very discreet operative's background:http://www.philippinenews.com/news/view_article.html?article_id=4997403295ea354107194d4960b18353

At 37, Ralston, a graduate of management, had worked as assistant to Jack Abramoff, a powerfully connected lobbyist, at the Preston Gates and Ellis and later at Greenberg Taurig law and lobbying firms. Story had it that Abramoff, indicted on alleged corruption charges involving, among others, former Republican majority leader Tom DeLay, had offered Ralston to Rove when the latter was looking for an efficient and trusted assistant.

Before working in the nation’s capital, she was an office administrator for a commercial and real estate firm in Chicago, Ill.

Ralston has been promoted to Special Assistant to the President and Assistant to the President Senior Adviser with an annual salary of $92,000. She is married to Troy Ralston, executive director of a graduate school of management.

Karl is an amazing person to work for. I feel very, very fortunate to be in an office where so much is happening,” Ralston told this reporter in a 2003 interview.

This is an extract of her bio at SourceWatch, Center for Media & Democracy:http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Susan_B._Ralston

Susan Bonzon Ralston, Special Assistant to the President & Assistant to the Senior Advisor Karl Rove, was Jack Abramoff's executive assistant at Preston Gates and Ellis and later at the Greenberg Traurig law and lobbying firm, where "she served as the assistant director of governmental affairs. Before moving to the nation’s capital, she was an office administrator for M&J Wilkow, Ltd., a commercial real estate firm in Chicago, Illinois." <1> (http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2005_09_18.php#006598)<2> (http://www.asianfortune.com/aug04/Articles/PROFILE%20Susan%20RALSTON.htm)

"Ms. Ralston assists Mr. Rove in overseeing the strategic planning, political affairs, public liaison, and intergovernmental affairs efforts of the White House." <3> (http://www.philippinefestival.org/pfc2003ma12.html)

Ralston is cited as being the highest ranking Filipino-American in the Bush White House. The Philippine News Online reported (http://www.philippinenews.com/news/view_article.html?article_id=3e0c4851a55bc3720463f093929c619d) September 22, 2004, that "Ralston, who was promoted special assistant to the president last July, is also actively involved in courting the Asian American vote."


Skybox Keeper
"On April 20th, 2000, Jack Abramoff's personal assistant Susan Ralston wrote a memo (http://talkingpointsmemo.com/docs/ralston.memo.4202000.html) outlining guidelines for doling out skybox seats to clients, politicians and Capitol Hill staffers," Josh Marshall wrote.
Gatekeeper
"As presidential adviser Karl Rove set up shop in the West Wing in 2001, he was looking for an assistant to serve as the trusted gatekeeper of his new fiefdom. Superlobbyist and Republican fundraiser Jack Abramoff was happy to lend a hand. Abramoff knew just the right person for the job: his own assistant, Susan Ralston. She interviewed with Rove and got the position," Peter H. Stone wrote (http://nationaljournal.com/about/njweekly/stories/2004/0327nj1.htm) in the March 27, 2004, National Journal. "For a staunch conservative and smooth GOP operative like Abramoff, losing a valuable aide was well worth the opportunity to ingratiate himself with the president's senior political adviser."

Ralston "was of course one of many Team Abramoff players who got seconded into the administration. Given the close relationship between Abramoff and Grover Norquist, it's probably not surprising that she also had an arrangement with Norquist in which he gave her direction on who to let through to Rove," Josh Marshall wrote (http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2005_09_18.php#006598) in his Talking Points Memo September 21, 2005.
Marshall, being "a little unclear on whether Ralston still works for Rove," called (http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2005_09_18.php#006598) the White House September 21, 2005, and "was told that she's no longer his 'executive assistant'. When asked what her title was was told only that she now worked for him 'in a different capacity.'" "When the Plame affair went before a Federal grand jury, Ralston was compelled to testify, and had to leave the job with Rove," Anton Chaitkin wrote (http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2005/3233abramoff_indict.html) in the August 26, 2005, issue of Executive Intelligence Review.

Plamegate
Along with former Rove aide Israel Hernandez, Susan B. Ralston testified before a separate federal grand jury "about grand jury testimony given on July 13 by Matthew Cooper, a reporter for Time magazine," David Johnston reported (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/03/politics/03leak.html?ex=1280721600&en=eae6478f4d3415f9&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss) in the August 3, 2005, Washington Post. "Cooper has said that he testified about a July 11, 2003, conversation with Mr. Rove" in which the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame "was discussed."
"The reason Ralston, 37, was asked to testify remains unclear, but it has heightened suspicions that the locus of the investigation still centers on Rove," Johnston wrote (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/12/AR2005091201630.html), although he did say that "At one point, the aides were asked why Mr. Cooper's call to Mr. Rove was not entered in Mr. Rove's office telephone logs. There was no record of the call, the person who has been briefed said, because Mr. Cooper did not call Mr. Rove directly, but was transferred to his office from a White House switchboard."

Bush-Cheney '04
Ralston told (http://www.asianfortune.com/aug04/Articles/PROFILE%20Susan%20RALSTON.htm) Jennie L. Ilustre in a pre-presidential election 2004 interview for Asian Fortune that she was then "the White House Liaison to the Bush-Cheney ’04 (BC’04) campaign. As such, she has been very much involved in the reelection campaign. 'I work on the coordination of all activities between the campaign and the White House, including the Republican National Convention,... I spend 95 per cent of my physical time at the White House, but do go over to the campaign headquarters for meetings.'"

Abramoff-Reed Indian Gambling Scandal
Ralston, "who worked for Jack Abramoff, the K Street super lobbyist that allegedly swindled Indian tribes out of millions of dollars with the assistance of Ralph Reed, former head of the Christian Coalition, is a trusted Rove aide. The buzz is, Ralston is the tie that binds Rove to the Indian casino swindle as tightly as U.S. Rep. Tom Delay (R-TX)," Blogger "Amy" wrote (http://derrick.dx266.com/cgi-bin/mb5/789.html) August 4, 2005.

in a few weeks and say "Damn!" about. Love the Boo Trib, by the way.

http://www.thinkprogress.org/leak-scandal

Personal assistant to Karl Rove (2001-Present) RALSTON IS ROVE’S RIGHT-HAND: ABC News reported on August 2, 2005 that Susan Ralston, Karl Rove’s long-time right-hand, testified before the grand jury. The National Journal reported, “If Karl Rove is Bush’s main man, then it’s Ralston who makes this White House go — because she’s indispensable to Rove.” According to Newsweek, Ralston was suggested to Rove by ethically-troubled lobbyist Jack Abramoff, for whom she previously served as a top aide. RALSTON WAS ASKED WHY ROVE’S CALL WITH MATT COOPER NOT ENTERED INTO PHONE LOGS: “At one point, the aides were asked why Mr. Cooper’s call to Mr. Rove was not entered in Mr. Rove’s office telephone logs. There was no record of the call, the person who has been briefed said, because Mr. Cooper did not call Mr. Rove directly, but was transferred to his office from a White House switchboard. The aides have worked closely with Mr. Rove, screening his calls and coordinating his activities with other White House officials. Mr. Hernandez had been an aide to President Bush since his successful campaign for governor of Texas in 1994, and Ms. Ralston is known as one of Mr. Rove’s most trusted associates.”
FITZGERALD MAY WANT RALSTON’S TESTIMONY FOR SOMETHING BESIDES COOPER CONVERSATION: “But a person familiar with Cooper’s testimony said that Ralston’s name did not come up during the reporter’s grand jury appearance. That indicates that Fitzgerald may be interested in her testimony for other reasons.”