Former Rove aid takes Fifth on WH contacts with Abramoff, e-mails (but makes offer)

[BrainGlutton]

Story here.

Susan Ralston, the former executive assistant to top White House adviser Karl Rove, invoked her rights against self-incrimination while she was being asked to answer questions by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, the Committee’s Chairman, Rep. Henry Waxman, announced in a memo Tuesday. The deposition for which she sat concerned contacts between convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff and Rove, as well as the White House more broadly.

“The subjects this morning that she will be unable to testify to…are the subjects of the relationship between Jack Abramoff and his associates and White House officials, including Ms. Ralston, and the subject of the use by White House officials of political e-mail accounts at the RNC,” Ralston’s lawyer, Bradford Berenson said, during the May 10 deposition. “She has material, useful information about both of those subjects.”

According to Waxman’s memo, which was sent to Oversight Committee members, Ralston is seeking immunity from prosecution.

“She is more than willing to provide it to the committee. However, she will, as we have previously discussed, require a grant of immunity before she is comfortable going forward,” Berenson also said in the deposition.

Suppose Ralston gets her immunity. What then? Has she got anything useful?

[BrainGlutton]

Relevant Rolling Stone article from January '06.

Much more recent WaPo editorial by Robert Novak.

[BrainGlutton]

Update:

The next step in the investigation will be to seek testimony from people who worked as lobbyists for Abramoff and from current and former White House and administration officials, according to the memo. The committee also will seek relevant documents from the White House and federal agencies, Waxman wrote.

The committee sought testimony from Ralston after its analysis of e-mail and phone records showed that of 485 contacts that Abramoff and his associates had with White House officials, 69 were with Ralston.

This could get really interesting . . .

[BrainGlutton]

Here’s a DU thread with copies of the Abramoff-Alston-Rove e-mails in question, in chronological order.