"Right-Hand" Rove Aide Susan Ralston Appears Before Fitzgerald Again

Top Rove aide ‘critical’ in CIA probe
Rita Gerona Adkins, Nov 09, 2005

http://www.philippinenews.com/news/view_article.html?article_id=4997403295ea354107194d4960b18353

WASHINGTON D.C. – Filipino American Susan Ralston, chief of-staff to presidential adviser Karl Rove, is one of nearly two dozen White House officials – including President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney – believed to have knowledge about the outing of Central Intelligence Agency operative agent Valerie Plame.

Ralston, Rove’s right-hand man, 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.

Plame’s work in the CIA was revealed after her husband Ambassador Joseph Wilson challenged President Bush’s reasons for going to war in Iraq. Exposing an agent is a crime as it endangers the agent’s life as well as the security of his or her family.

Ralston appears to be a person of critical interest in the investigation, just like her boss Rove. Rove is one of the officials who had spoken with journalists who had written about Plame. Another one who spoke to the press is Dick Cheney chief-of-staff I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, who was indicted for perjury. Fitzgerald said Libby lied to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and obstructed investigation. As Rove’s assistant covering for him from policy pronouncements down to housekeeping issues, Ralston works very closely with George Bush’s senior adviser.