Karl Rove

Karl Rove is a Republican political consultant with close ties to the Bush family. During his early years in politics, Rove fought to lead the College Republicans, which led to him meeting George H.W. Bush. Rove was Bush's personal assistant as RNC chair. Afterwards, Rove left to work in political consulting in Virginia (in 1976) and then Texas (in 1977). There, he assisted with hundreds of races, gaining a reputation for winning close and tough elections. He also worked on Bush's 1992 re-election campaign, but was forced out due to ethics violations. In 2000, Rove led the winning presidential campaign of George W. Bush, and entered the Bush Administration as a chief adviser to the president. Eventually forced out of the White House due to the numerous scandals surrounding his use of executive power, Rove later reasserted his dominance over GOP politics by coming to control its campaign finance. Rove is infamous for cutthroat dirty politics, but people such as Cliff Arnebeck claim that he has gone even further to ensure Republican victories, heading an election rigging enterprise.

Occupations

Political organizations

• College Republicans: Chairman (1973)
• Republican National Committee: Special assistant to George H.W. Bush (19??-1974), executive assistant to the co-chair (1974-19??)
• Virginia Republican Party: Finance director (1976)

Campaigns and PACs

• ...
• 2000 and 2004 George W. Bush presidential campaigns: Chief strategist

Controversies

Don Siegelman prosecution

Main article: Don Siegelman prosecution

Bush Administration emails

Main article: Bush Administration email controversy

Jack Abramoff connection

Main article: Jack Abramoff

Political connections

Republican politics

• Bush family
  • George H.W. Bush
  • George W. Bush
• R. Doug Lewis? (Rove came to Texas right at the time that Lewis was Texas GOP finance director and a fundraiser for GOP causes)
• Mercer Reynolds and William DeWitt Jr. (the latter joined the President's Intelligence Advisory Board under Bush in 2003; both co-founded Reynolds, DeWitt & Co. in 1979, financed SmarTech, and were considered "Rove's bosses" in Jim March and Jill Simpson's election theft diagram)
• Jack Abramoff (Susan Ralston, Abramoff's personal assistant, become Rove's personal assistant in the White House)

Electioneering

• Michael Connell
• Jeff Averbeck
• Bob Urosevich? (according to Dana Jill Simpson, they met each other, but this is unverified)

US intelligence

• CIA? (evidence is spotty, but interesting)
  • Dana Jill Simpson maintains that Rove was George H.W. Bush's personal assistant as CIA director, and Cliff Arnebeck repeats this, saying that Rove "was carrying George H. W. Bush’s bag when he was director of the CIA" and "became familiar during that tenure with the CIA operations around the world"
  • Rove worked with Donald Segretti, a political dirty tricks master under Nixon whose actions may have been directed by CIA agent E. Howard Hunt (the FBI purportedly found numerous phone calls from Hunt to Segretti)
  • Back in high school, Rove worked for the Senate campaign of Utah politician Wallace F. Bennett. In working on Wallace Bennett's campaign, Rove became friends with his son Bob Bennett. Bob Bennett owned the Robert Mullen Company, a CIA front where Hunt had worked after officially retiring from the CIA.
  • Rove had an influential behind-the-scenes role in the 9/11 Commission, which ultimately hid the evidence of US intelligence responsibility for the attacks. During its formation, Rove was instrumental in the initial selection of Henry Kissinger as chairman, followed by Tom Kean when Kissinger was rejected. During the time that the Commission was set up, Rove had multiple phone conversations with executive director Philip Zelikow for an unclear reason.
  • According to Julian Assange, a diplomatic cable obtained by Wikileaks shows that Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt was a US informant dating back to 1973, and his initial contact was Karl Rove. This happens to correspond to the time period that Rove started working for George Bush at the RNC. Rove and Bildt denied any impropriety, but acknowledged their longtime close friendship. During the time that Sweden attempted to frame-up Assange to get him extradited to the US, Rove was advising the CIA-friendly prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, leading to rumors that Rove was orchestrating the persecution of Assange. In the 2012 general election, Anonymous (supporters of Wikileaks) claimed to have stopped Rove from committing fraud and discussed his rivalry with Assange.

Democratic politics

• James Carville
• Eric Holder? (of law firm Covington & Burling)

Corporate connections

Lobbying entities

• Business Council of Alabama
• US Chamber of Commerce under Tom Donohue
• American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)

Notable oligarchs

• Mercer Reynolds and William DeWitt Jr.
• Steve Wynn
• Sheldon Adelson

External links

Bush family

• ABC, "Karl Rove Helped Mold Bush's Political Career"
• NPR, "Karl Rove and His Connections to the Bush Family"
• NPR, "Karl Rove Dodges Indictment in CIA Leak Probe", 2006/06/13 - claims that Rove went to Texas in 1977 for the purpose of raising campaign money for George H.W. Bush, contradicting Rove's claim in his autobiography that he was asked by Bush after he was already in Texas

Virginia GOP tenure

• Richmond Times-Dispatch, "GOP turmoil had Virginia in spotlight - in 1976", 2016/06/19: "If it was Obenshain who brought passion to the Republican Party, it was his successor as chairman, George McMath, an Eastern Shore newspaper publisher, who professionalized it. On McMath's watch, beginning in 1974, the Virginia GOP hired bright young things who would later become household names in business and national politics. [...] Brought on as finance director was a stamp-collecting former organizer of college Republicans credited decades later with installing Bush 2 in the White House: Karl Rove."
• Washington Post, "Rove Boosts Va. GOP, Kilgore as Democrats Name Chairman", 2005/06/05 - says (perhaps erroneously) that Rove "worked for the Republican Party of Virginia for a year in 1975"
• According to p.345 of The Dynamic Dominion by Frank B. Atkinson, Rove became finance director in late 1975 or early 1976: "McMath was able to attract an energetic, youthful corps of trained operatives to staff the state Republican headquarters. In late 1975, he tapped William Royall, twenty-nine, a veteran of several GOP campaigns and of the Republican National Committee's communications department, to serve as the party's new executive director. A few months later, a twenty-five-year-old whiz kid named Karl Rove came down from Alexandria to join the party staff as finance director."
• According to p.42-46 of Courage and Consequence by Karl Rove (his autobiography), he was appointed in late 1975 and joined in early 1976

Texas political consulting

• Initial move to Texas - was it for a role in the George H.W. Bush campaign?
  • ABC, "Rove: 'I'm Moby Dick'", 2007/08/13: "As Jimmy Carter was being inaugurated in January 1977, Rove moved to Texas to raise money for the older Bush's exploration committee for 1980. In his new home state, Rove became one of the most successful political strategists of the modern era. An estimate from The Atlantic magazine assesses that Rove's candidates were victorious in 34 of the 41 statewide, congressional, and national races for which he served as primary strategist."
  • PBS Frontline, "Karl Rove -- The Architect", "Chronology: Karl Rove's Life and Political Career": "In January 1977, he relocates to Texas to work as a fundraiser for George H. W. Bush's presidential-exploration political action committee. Rove also serves as an informal adviser to George W. Bush, who is making his first run for Congress."
  • Note that January 1977 is right when George Bush Sr. lost his job as CIA director following Jimmy Carter's election as president

US attorneys scandal

• McClatchy DC Bureau, "Probe shows Rove played key role in firing U.S. attorneys", 2009/08/11
• Los Angeles Times, "Karl Rove took active role in U.S. attorney's firing, documents show", 2009/08/12: pages 1, 2

Political prosecutions

• Project Save Justice: Karl Rove's Persecutions: parts 1, 2, 3

Election theft

• Sheri Leigh Myers allegations that Rove was at the center of an effort to privatize elections
  • "WIDE AWAKE in a TURDBLOSSOM NIGHTMARE", 2008/10/08
    • "Next step of The Plan was made under cover of a private, "nonprofit" "nonpartisan" organization called The Election Center that served as a nexus for the voting machine vendors and election officials. A core group from the Election Center seized control of the testing and certifying of the voting machines and spawned another private, "nonprofit" "nonpartisan" organization called NASED, the National Association of State Election Directors.
      (SEE "The Scoop on Turdblossom" PDFs 1A - 25 below)"
    • "In one fell swoop, NASED took away American voters' ability to oversee our own elections. Under NASED, source code - the keys to the electronic kingdom - became proprietary. The secret vote-counting software now belonged to the voting machine vendors who would pay for the testing and certifying of their own software and hardware. And how convenient and suspicious that the first NASED-certified voting systems - Microvote and AIS - were repped by ex-Election Center director Gary Greenhalgh. Another key Election Center/NASED election official who left "public service" to hawk NASED-certified systems was Deborah Seiler, (see Kudzu List #16) who became a sales director for Diebold, then Sequoia (PDF B).
      
      Greenhalgh (PDF 1A) founder of The Election Center, is presently VP of ES&S. That's Election Systems and Software, the largest election services company in the world."
    • "I think it is correct to point directly to Karl Rove as the mastermind behind this successful Plan to corrupt America's democratic process. Rove's m.o. is always to do his dirty work through a surrogate. A cut-out.
      
      Both Karl and Carol Garner, the Republican operative who became director of The Election Center after Greenhalgh, (PDFs 10 & 11) worked on the 1978 Clements campaign for Governor of Texas (PDF 12). After Clements' election, Rove was hired as Chief of Staff to the Governor. Garner continued her work for the Governor in "Ballot Security."
      
      In this 1989 letter (PDFs 17A & B) Garner proposed that the Election Center take over from the FEC the task of managing the testing and certifying of the voting machines. And incredibly, the FEC agreed. Another indication that Rove might have been pulling these strings, is the appointment of Tom Harrison as the first Executive Director of NASED in 1990 (PDF 19). At the time, Harrison was "special assistant for elections" to Rove's client, Governor Clements. In 1991, Harrison worked to bring the newly-certified DREs to Texas, (PDF 20) and establish national Voting System standards that recommended that all certified software "should not be public information." (PDF 21) Under Harrison, NASED established once and for all that vendors had ownership over secret voting-counting software - dealing a terrible blow to our democracy."
    • "Another link between Karl, the Election Center and The Plan is Doug Lewis, (see Kudzu List #10) who took over from Carol Garner as director of the The Election Center in 1994 - the same year that GW Bush was "elected" Governor of Texas. In 1978, when Rove rolled into Houston to work for Bush Sr, Lewis was raising money for John Connally Citizen's Forum. Two Republican operatives raising money in Houston, I've got to imagine their paths crossed..."
    • Sheri Myers, "Turdblossom's Insider's Guide to Swinging Elections", 2008 (parts 1, 2)
    • Article by Sheri Myers on suspicious aspects of the 1985 mayoral election in Dallas TX, under the supervision of future Los Angeles County Registrar of Voters Conny McCormack
  • "THE SCOOP ON TURDBLOSSOM & THE CORRUPTION OF OUR ELECTION SYSTEM: AN INTERACTIVE SCRAPBOOK FOR THE CURIOUS"
  • "THE KUDZU EFFECT: The Voting-­Industrial Complex Chokes Our Democracy" - covers Rove, Texas GOP, and CIA involvement in election theft
    • 1986 election fraud for Ferdinand Marcos
      • Washington Post, "Fraud Charges Multiply in Philippines", 1986/02/10 - the election computers were managed by "Col. Pedro Baraoidan, a West Point graduate and U.S.-trained computer specialist", who accused the election integrity protesters of setting him up
  • "KUDZU LIST – RELATIONSHIPS TO THE ELECTION CENTER and/or NASED and other BIO Info"
  • "The Kudzu Effect" - details the revolving door network
• Brad Friedman, "GOP Tech Guru Mike Connell 'High IQ Forrest Gump...At Scene of Every Single Crime' Say Ohio Attorneys", 2008/07/22 (interview of Cliff Arnebeck and Bob Fitrakis by Velvet Revolution on 2008/07/17)
• Alleged revelations to Brett Kimberlin from an anonymous tipster in the McCain campaign aware of the election fraud - claims that the operation is really based in Enterprise AL; says Rove uses Jeff Averbeck as a cutout between himself and Connell (ed note: other way around makes more sense?); claims that there are ten SmarTech teams in total, one targeting each state; alleges that the SmarTech teams use various fronts, some of which are affiliated with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Tennessee Valley Authority; includes an email from Stephen Spoonamore discussing Connell coming forward
  • From p.11 of Boss Rove by Craig Unger: "Nearby Lookout Mountain on the Tennessee-Georgia border serves as an icon of the South's Old Money, and in Chattanooga that means the handful of families whose billions are rooted in the fortune created by the Coca-Cola Bottling Company. The Tennessee Valley Authority, the Atomic Energy Commission's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and NASA's nearby facility in Huntsville, Alabama, provide ample technological resources and brainpower."
  • Roger Shuler, "What Might Be Lurking in WikiLeaks' "Thermonuclear Device"?", 2011/01/18 - source suggests that Wikileaks might have data hacked by the Chinese from Oak Ridge National Laboratory concerning stolen elections
  • Greg Palast, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, 2003 - p.217-218 mention the Tennessee Valley Authority paying a Wisconsin power company in May 1992 for the right to release several tons of sulfur dioxide as part of an emissions trading scheme
• Interview with Cliff Arnebeck and Bob Fitrakis about how Karl Rove was served with a subpoena on 2010/10/24 upon his arrival to the CBS studio
• Excerpt from "MOVEing In The Wrong Direction" (full article unavailable): "Former GOP operative who worked under Karl Rove recalls several occasions where Rove interacted [with Bob Urosevich?]"
• Fatally Flawed, "Karl Rove's Electronic Empire Of Fraud" by Jim March and Jill Simpson, 2012/10/24 (MP3 of radio broadcast with Jim March, Jill Simpson, Craig Unger, and Mark Crispin Miller - at 10:02 March relates how the current election supervisor in Pima County AZ was the only Pima County manager to get his county credit card revoked for fraud and yet kept his job; agrees with the interviewer that the official is likely a "Rove operative")
• Press conference in October 2012 with Cliff Arnebeck, Dana Jill Simpson, Jim March, and Dana Siegelman
• MOVE Act and Karl Rove's election theft network: blog post, PDF
• Reddit user Rubyjane123 mentions the allegation that Rove was involved in the disastrous 2016 Puerto Rico primary

Post-Bush GOP work

• Raw Story, "Karl Rove's next move: A million-dollar home on Florida's Emerald Coast", 2008/03/28: "According to political journalist Jim Moore, many factors probably influenced the timing of Rove's resignation--including the desire to cash in on lucrative speaker's fees and the prospect of reinventing himself as a political pundit on the national stage. "Ultimately, though, what probably appeals to Karl the most is being a sort of freelance Dr. Evil," Moore -- a Rove critic -- explained in an email to RAW STORY. "He can do his work now for hire under the guise of any organization that wants to hire him or he can do it for fun and generally avoid the restraint of party or candidate. Have darkness. Will travel.""
• Politico, "Rove hits big: Birth of a mega-donor", 2012/07/13: "In the new Wild West of giving and getting campaign money, the marriage of casino mogul Steve Wynn and political guru Karl Rove was an exceptionally powerful — and secretive — one. Wynn, the flamboyant Las Vegas billionaire who claims to have voted for President Barack Obama in 2008, was the perfect get for Rove. Wynn was loaded, had soured on Obama and was just the kind of wealthy businessman who could help underwrite a plan hatched by Rove and other influential conservatives to spend close to $1 billion total to win the White House, Senate and House in 2012. Wynn , a registered Democrat until recently, was reluctant to attach his name to any high-dollar gambles on the GOP, worried that Obama’s allies would make him a bogeyman. [...] The courting, which took place in direct conversations and th rough friends and allies of both men, produced big results. Wynn has kicked in millions to Crossroads GPS, according to multiple sources. And Rove, who attended Wynn’s gala wedding last year in Vegas, recently got something of a personal bonus out of the relationship. After Wynn attended the veteran operative’s wedding last month in Austin — an intimate and until-now unreported affair also attended by former President George W. Bush — Rove and his new wife Karen Johnson flew to Naples, Italy, aboard Wynn’s Boeing 737 — a nearly 11-hour, 6,000-mile trip that could cost tens of thousands of dollars from a charter jet carrier. Wynn joined Rove in Italy. [...] The political team Wynn assembled in the last few years to facilitate his political escalation is a case in point. His lobbyist Charlie Spies co-founded the Restore Our Future super PAC to boost Mitt Romney’s GOP presidential campaign. Another co-founder was Carl Forti, the political director of Crossroads GPS. Spies and Forti worked together on Romney’s 2008 campaign — along with Wynn’s corporate government affairs director Mike Britt, who worked in George W. Bush’s political shop under Rove. [...] Spies and Britt wouldn’t comment on what they discussed or their roles in Wynn’s operation. But lobbying filings show Spies’s firms — first McKenna Long & Aldridge and then Clark Hill — have been paid $375,000 by the publicly traded casino-developing and management company Wynn runs, Wynn Resorts, to lobby Congress on a range of internet gambling issues and international taxation, while Britt has been involved in state government lobbying for Wynn. Rove provides political advice in private to a number of donors, and several of them have written big checks to American Crossroads or Crossroads GPS. But a source familiar with GPS said Wynn was its biggest donor, at least through the end of last year. [...] They show $654,000 in disclosed donations since 2008 going almost entirely to GOP candidates and groups — with $406,000 donated from his company to the Republican Governors Association — a change from his pre-2010 giving, which included plenty of cash to Democrats like Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and their party committees. Wynn considers Reid a friend , and his family gave $9,000 to Joe Biden’s 2008 campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. [...] Both Adelson’s Las Vegas Sands corporation and Wynn Resorts have gambling operations in Macao. And the pair lately have collaborated more on political efforts, such as a 2012 fundraiser at Adelson’s Venetian hotel for a joint fundraising committee linked to House Speaker John Boehner, and a 2011 fundraiser for Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.) at the Wynn."
• WBUR, "'Gerrymandering On Steroids': How Republicans Stacked The Nation's Statehouses", 2016/07/19: "It was never a secret. In 2010, the conservative political strategist Karl Rove took to the Wall Street Journal and laid out a plan to win majorities in state legislatures across the country. "He who controls redistricting can control Congress," read the subhead to Rove's column. The plan, which its architects dubbed REDMAP for Redistricting Majority Project, hinged on the fact that states redraw their electoral maps every 10 years according to new Census data. REDMAP targeted states where just a few statehouse seats could shift the balance to Republican control in the crucial Census year of 2010."
• Koch Brothers (Charles and David) relationship
  • Politico, "Rove vs. the Koch brothers", 2011/10/10: "Karl Rove’s team and the Koch brothers’ operatives quietly coordinated millions of dollars in political spending in 2010, but that alliance, which has flown largely under the radar, is showing signs of fraying."
  • Washington Post, "The Koch brothers can save the Republican Party - by making it more moderate, 2014/05/23: "Recently, no less a Republican Party icon than Karl Rove canonized Charles and David Koch: “Bless them for all they do,” he wrote in Time magazine. Rove’s blessing is the clearest sign yet that the brothers have been granted admission to the inner sanctum of Republican power. Yet for many years the Kochs were enemies of the GOP, whose political primacy they challenged through the libertarian movement. Writing in 1978 in a magazine he owned called Libertarian Review, Charles Koch called the GOP “the party of ‘business’ in the wors[t] sense” and blasted Republicans for advancing a doomed strategy that “has failed so miserably.”"
• The Nation, "Why Scott Walker Will Never Be President", 2014/06/20 - criminal scheme involving Scott Walker
• Donald Trump relationship
  • Politico, "Karl Rove-backed PAC warms to Trump", 2016/04/14
  • New York Magazine, "Is Karl Rove Secretly Falling for Donald Trump?", 2016/04/14
  • New York Times, "At Odds Publicly, Donald Trump and Karl Rove Hold a Private Meeting", 2016/06/02 (Las Vegas Sun repost): "[...] two weeks ago, Trump and Rove held a secret meeting as the presumptive Republican nominee was courting major party figures. The meeting took place at the Manhattan home of casino magnate Steve Wynn, a mutual friend who brokered the get-together, according to two people briefed on the meeting and who were granted anonymity to discuss the gathering. [...] The purpose of the meeting was unclear, although Rove is the last strategist to help elect a Republican president, and Trump is lagging organizationally for the upcoming general election. [...] Rove has longstanding relationships with many of the party’s biggest donors, and has intricate knowledge of how super PACs can help elect candidates. Rove also has a long relationship with Sheldon Adelson, another casino magnate who has said he would spend upward of $100 million to back Trump. Adelson and Trump met Tuesday, their second meeting in the past few weeks. Rove has talked with Adelson about what super PAC to use as a vehicle for donating such a large sum of money to support Trump, including possibly using the Crossroads fundraising groups, which he helped establish, according to people with knowledge of the discussions. Adelson is also discussing the possibility of creating a new entity that would back Trump, and has been holding talks with Nick Ayers, the former executive director of the Republican Governors Association, according to two people briefed on the discussions."
  • NPR, "Making Midterm Elections About Trump Is A Bad Idea, Rove Says", 2017/12/23
  • NBC, "At White House, re-election advisers rise as coronavirus task force fades", 2020/05/15: "And while there are some mainstays from his 2016 campaign in the collection of voices, the president is also being advised — both directly and indirectly — by former President George W. Bush's adviser Karl Rove, who came to the White House this week to meet with Trump and his chief of staff, Mark Meadows, according to a senior administration official. Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale has consulted Rove since the 2018 midterm elections, per three people familiar with the discussions. Before the pandemic, Rove had advised the Trump campaign it could be modeled, in some ways, after the Bush 2004 re-election race. “Even though he’s not a big Trump fan, he hates the Democrats and he hates Biden,” one person said of Rove’s possible motivation. His participation is significant given Trump called out his GOP predecessor last month for not defending him in the impeachment inquiry."
  • CNN, "Administration officials alarmed by White House push to fast track lucrative 5G spectrum contract, sources say", 2020/10/20: "Senior officials throughout various departments and agencies of the Trump administration tell CNN they are alarmed at White House pressure to grant what would essentially be a no-bid contract to lease the Department of Defense's mid-band spectrum -- premium real estate for the booming and lucrative 5G market -- to Rivada Networks, a company in which prominent Republicans and supporters of President Donald Trump have investments. The pressure campaign to fast track Rivada's "Request for Proposal" (RFP) by using authorities that would preclude a competitive bidding process intensified in September, and has been led by White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, who was acting at Trump's behest, sources with knowledge tell CNN. [...] Sources tell CNN that Trump was encouraged to help Rivada by Fox News commentator and veteran GOP strategist Karl Rove, a lobbyist for, and investor in, Rivada. Untold billions are at stake. A government auction of 70 megahertz of spectrum in August went for more than $4.5 billion. The Rivada bid would be for 350 megahertz of spectrum -- five times that amount. [...] Newt Gingrich, the former Republican speaker of the House and noted Trump supporter, has also been advocating for the Pentagon to share its 5G network with commercial users, and doing so in a way that has left insiders under the impression that he lobbied for Rivada."
• Steve Bannon relationship
  • New Yorker, "Karl Rove Has Seen the Enemy and He Is Steve Bannon", 2017/11/15
• OpenSecrets News, "McConnell-allied nonprofit received millions from Rove-linked group in 2016; neither disclosed donors", 2017/11/17

Working with Democrats

• Indiana Chamber of Commerce, "James Carville and Karl Rove Headline Chamber’s Annual Awards Dinner Nov. 4", 2015/09/03
• Covington & Burling, the DC law firm at which Eric Holder was a partner, represented high-level Republicans
  • Dana Jill Simpson, "Eric Holder's Conflict of Interest", 2009/08/07
  • Roger Shuler, "Are Holder's GOP Ties Subverting Justice in Political Prosecutions?", 2009/08/10 - law firm's assistance to GOP includes the RNC email controversy, Tobin phone-jamming in NH, and Tom Feeney connections to Jack Abramoff
  • Roger Shuler, "Holder's Former Law Firm Brags About Its GOP Ties", 2009/08/18 - the Covington & Burling website brags about protecting Karl Rove's emails from being turned over
• Roger Shuler, "Meet The Man Who Is Letting Karl Rove And Other Bushies Off the Hook", 2010/09/09 - according to Wayne Madsen, Citigroup chairman and Obama adviser Richard Parsons was friends with Rove and advised Obama not to go after Bush Administration crimes

CIA connection

• From p.58 of L'Affaire Petraeus by Wayne Madsen: "Rove has long been rumored to have close links to certain CIA operations, including those in Sweden. Rove has been a political adviser to Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, a conservative who has sidled up to the CIA on issues ranging from the CIA's rendition of Muslims from Swedish soil, CIA use of Swedish airfields for rendition activity, and the attempt by the United States to bring WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to face trial in the United States."
• Could Rove have been involved with Bush Sr. as CIA director? That depends on how close he was to Washington DC and McLean VA
  • Roll Call, "Ney Says New Book Isn't About Settling Scores but Moving On", 2013/05/07: "After being asked to be a delegate at the 1976 Republican National Convention in Kansas City, where Ronald Reagan was challenging Gerald Ford, he was invited to Washington by the Ford White House. “We headed to D.C. in my Chevy Chevette, changed our clothes in Karl Rove’s apartment and camped out there that night. His place seemed disorganized and had the appearance of an apartment where the occupant doesn’t spend much time,” Ney recollects."
• Julian Assange persecution
  • Roger Shuler, "Is Karl Rove Driving the Effort to Prosecute Julian Assange?", 2010/12/14
  • Andrew Kreig, "Rove Suspected In Swedish-U.S. Political Prosecution of WikiLeaks", 2010/12/19
  • The Week, "Is Karl Rove helping persecute Julian Assange?", 2010/12/21
  • Roger Shuler, "Rove and Wallenberg Are At The Heart Of The Julian Assange Prosecution", 2011/02/10 - Anonymous Operation Want implicates Rove and the Wallenberg family (defense contractor owner) in the persecution of Assange
  • Professor Marcello Ferrada de Noli, "Karl Rove’s Swedish Connections: The Controversy And The Facts", 2011/02/13
  • Rolling Stone, "Julian Assange: The Rolling Stone Interview" by Michael Hastings, 2012/01/18: "The Swedish foreign minister responsible for extradition, Carl Bildt, became a U.S. Embassy informant in 1973 when he was 24 years old. He shipped his personal effects to Washington, to lead a conservative leadership program, where he met Karl Rove. They became old friends and would go to conferences together and so on. Karl Rove? How do you know this? Cables."
  • Radio Sweden, "Bildt spy claims tie in with Assange verdict", 2012/02/22 - Carl Bildt, Swedish foreign minister, was accused of being a US spy with Karl Rove as his contact; the two indeed had a close relationship
  • Expressen, "Wikileaks: Carl Bildt is a US informant", 2012/02/22 - alleged cable about Bildt shows that he was a US informant since 1973 and that his first contact was Karl Rove
  • WikiLeaks, "Press release: WikiLeaks on Recent Fabricated Stories in the Swedish Press", 2012/03/06: "WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson has not said that the so-called 'internal memo' exists or confirmed any Expressen allegations. Kristinn Hrafnsson told Expressen only that the information provided in the already published Rolling Stone January interview (that cables exist showing long term contact between Carl Bildt and George W. Bush spinmaster Karl Rove) was accurate. Anything to suggest the contrary is itself spin."
  • Nordic News Network, "A Cold Warrior's Transfiguration" - the politics of Bildt are very US- and CIA-friendly
  • Mark Crispin Miller, "Is Karl Rove trying to “pull a Siegelman” on Julian Assange?", 2010/12/29
• 9/11 Commission involvement
  • History Commons cites p.15,29 of The Commission: The Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation by Philip Shenon (2008) to show that Rove was instrumental in selecting initial chairman Henry Kissinger and successor Tom Kean: "Presidential adviser Karl Rove is concerned about the 9/11 Commission, which is soon to be established (see November 15, 2002). Author Philip Shenon will say this is because he thinks that “in the wrong hands… [it] could cost President Bush a second term.” According to Democratic Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, Republican Senator Trent Lott says that behind-the-scenes opposition to the commission’s creation is orchestrated by Rove and the White House’s political office. “It’s all Rove,” Lott tells Daschle. Rove is also involved in the selection of the Commission’s initial chairman, Henry Kissinger (see November 27, 2002), and his successor Tom Kean (see December 14, 2002)."
  • Max Holland, "NYT's Reporter Claims Rove Influenced 9/11 Commission Report", 2008/01/30 (copy on Rigorous Intuition)
  • Excerpt from Jon Gold interview of Phil Shenon - discusses how Rove was in frequent contact with executive director Philip Zelikow

Less definitive connections

• According to p.67 of The CIA in Hollywood: How the Agency Shapes Film and Television by Tricia Jenkins, following 9/11, George W. Bush sent Rove to Los Angeles to discuss collaborative efforts between Hollywood and the military. The author ties this to the CIA's use of Hollywood for propagandistic purposes.
• According to p.51-52 of Interlock: Art, Conspiracy, and the Shadow Worlds of Mark Lombardi by Patricia Goldstone, Karl Rove viciously opposed Sissy Farenthold, who was leading an investigation into the Houston old-boy network with the help of reporters like Pete Brewton, Jonathan Beaty, and Beaty's protege Danny Casolaro
• Alternet, "Bush and Blow", 2001/11/06 - details Rove's role in discrediting a story about George W. Bush using cocaine
• Alex Constantine, "Reverberations of the JF Kennedy Murder and Cover-Up: Karl Rove Link to the Connick Family", 2009/07/22 - alleged connection to the Connick family of JFK assassination cover-up infamy
• From p.152 of Shadow Government, Southern Style: A Saga of Political Corruption From DC to Dixie by Thomas T. Gallion III (2020): "I have made jokes about the comical sight of Karl Rove riding on his bicycle; however, I observed something very strange involving him: As I was taking my daily walk, I saw a federal prosecutor dressed in an Army Reserve uniform entering Rove's Rosemary Beach, Florida home during the Siegelman/Scrushy case. I thought it was both odd and highly improper during that particular timeframe."

Other curiosities

• Tobacco industry closeness
  • Washington Post, "Big Tobacco Takes Its Chances on Bush", 2000/02/18: "Bush's top political aide, Karl Rove, was a consultant to Philip Morris Cos., the nation's largest tobacco company."
  • The Nation, "George W. Bush: Calling for Philip Morris", 1999/10/21: "Some of Bush’s closest aides are allies of Philip Morris, including Karl Rove, the leading Republican Party campaign strategist in Texas. A close friend of Bush’s since the early seventies and Bush’s chief political adviser since the late eighties, Rove–who’s been called “the governor’s Svengali” by National Review–was formally on the payroll of Philip Morris from 1991 to 1996 as a paid political intelligence operative. [...] in Texas, critics of Rove are quick to say that they think he quietly maintains his ties to the company."
  • Note that many of Don Siegelman's political enemies were also supporters of tobacco companies
• Corporate enrichment
  • BBC, "ENRON: Who's who" page on Karl Rove, 2002: "Mr Rove was one of the biggest holders of Enron stock among White House staffers, with between $100,000 and $250,000 worth of shares when he was appointed. He was required to sell them when the Bush administration took office. The White House has acknowledged that Mr Rove took part in meetings that helped shape the Bush government’s energy policy, while he still held Enron shares and stock in other energy companies – though the administration denies that the meetings were specific enough to raise conflict-of-interest of interest. Mr Rove also recommended the Republican strategist Ralph Reed (former executive director of the Christian Coalition) to Enron for a consulting contract as Mr Bush was considering whether to run for president. Both the White House and Enron deny that this was a deal to secure Mr Reed’s backing, but critics allege the move was intended to keep Mr Reed loyal to the Bush campaign without putting him on the Bush payroll. Critics say Mr Rove’s involvement in Mr Reed's hiring underscores the close association between Enron and the Bush inner circle."
  • David Swanson, "Containing the military industrial complex", 2006/07/15: "The Secretary of the Navy came from General Dynamics, and the Deputy Secretary of State from Raytheon and Boeing – a company that Karl Rove owned $100,000 to $250,000 worth of stock in."
• Associated Press, "Phone-Jamming Records Point to White House", 2006/04/11
• Democracy Now, "Ex-Congressional Aide: Karl Rove Personally Received (and Ignored) Iranian Peace Offer in 2003", 2007/02/26 - Swiss ambassador in Tehran had Bob Ney deliver the offer to Karl Rove