Posted on 07/03/2005 8:25:16 PM PDT by CHARLITE
A lawyer for presidential adviser Karl Rove has disclosed that his client spoke with a Time magazine reporter just days before the name of a CIA operative was leaked to the media, but he did not leak the confidential information.
Rove attorney Robert Luskin said that Rove did not reveal any secrets, and, furthermore, special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has assured him that the adviser is not a target of his investigation.
According to Luskin, Rove spoke to Time reporter Matthew Cooper in July 2003 - a week before media reports revealed the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame, the wife of Bush administration critic and former special U.S. envoy Joseph Wilson.
"What I can tell you is that Cooper called Rove during that week between the Wilson article and the Novak article, but that Karl absolutely did not identify Valerie Plame," Luskin said.
Wilson has in the past said he suspected Rove played a role in revealing his wife's cover. Wilson believes the White House leaked her name in retaliation for a July 6, 2003 article in the New York Times written by Wilson, accusing the administration of using bogus intelligence to justify the invasion of Iraq.
Cooper is one of two reporters who have been held in contempt of court for not cooperating with a federal investigation into who revealed Plame's identity. Cooper and another reporter, Judith Miller of the New York Times, face jail terms that could start as early as Wednesday.
Meanwhile, in a bid to keep its reporter out of jail, Time Inc. turned over e-mail and other documents to a special prosecutor on Friday.
Reportedly, these documents identify sources Cooper used in his report, but thus far Time has refused to comment on whether or not the documents out Rove as among the sources who were revealed.
Rove has testified before a grand jury investigating the Plame case on three occasions. That grand jury is probing the alleged outing of Plame by syndicated columnist Robert Novak on July 14, 2003.
Luskin said, "It is certainly my understanding that Karl has testified absolutely truthfully about all his conversations about everybody that he has been asked about during that week."
"Nobody has suggested to us ever that they think that there are any problems about whether they think he is being candid."
If I am not mistaken, he expressed surprise (mock surprise?) at the time, wondering at the fact that anyone thought it unusual, since "everybody inside the Beltway knows that Joe Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, works as a CIA undercover agent."
I remember reading Novak's remarks at the time, and Rush talked about it extensively.
Not exactly an unbiased source of information say I.
But...but...but...this can't be true! pMSNBC's Lawrence "I put the anal in analyst" O'Donnel says Rove did too leak it...
Are ya sayin here that just maybe Lawerence O'Donnel might have jumped to the wrog conclusion?
Novak is too stupid to be a Republican. I think he must be a Dem plant. Afterall, 95% of all journalists are Dems.
Ive long suspected that Wilson himself was the leak. A request for privacy didn't inspire confidence when they were involved in photo shoots.
She was undercover when she was based overseas. She was no longer undercover, though, when the idiot, Novak, blew her cover.
Valeri Plames Boss was a Clinton appointee and he retires a few months after this so called scandal broke. That is who I think it was who spoke to Navak. I can't remember his name (Plames Boss right now, maybe somebody else can remember it
You are mistaken.
Novak is a registered Democrat.
Aldrich Ames blew HER cover. She hadn't been undercover in years.
Alan Foley; he was the head of the nonproliferation office at the CIA, which is where she was working.
Not exactly UNDERcover.
Alan Foley. I'm also inclined to believe that he was one of Novak's sources.
http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/entity.jsp?entity=alan_foley
Robert G. Joseph, director for nonproliferation at the National Security Council (NSC), telephones senior CIA official Alan Foley and argues that the Africa-uranium claim should be included in Bush's upcoming State of the Union address. When Foley warns that the allegation has little evidence to support it, Mr. Joseph instead requests that the speech include a remark saying that the British had learned that Iraq was seeking uranium in Africa, leaving out the bit about Niger and the exact quantity of uranium that was allegedly sought.
[The Washington Post, 7/17/03; New York Times, 7/17/03; New York Times, 7/17/03; The Washington Post, 7/27/03; Time Magazine, 7/21/03 Sources: Two unnamed senior administration officials interviewed by Time, Alan Foley] Joseph claims he does not recall the discussion and White House communications director Dan Bartlett calls Foley's version of events a conspiracy theory. [The Washington Post, 7/27/03]
It was a while ago now, so I don't know how one would verify that one short remark by Novak.
In all fairness, I only heard Rush quote Novak. I didn't hear Novak say it himself.
Char
She was a bleeping bureaucrat who liked to make people believe at DC cocktail parties that her job was more glamorous than it was. I know the type all too well. This is the part that the Wilsons are so pissed about. The truth about her real job is going to come out much to her embarrassment.
Deep cover operative my ass.
For correcting an out and out lie?
Why did he need to make such a gratuitous disclosure?
In his own words:
". I was curious why a high-ranking official in President Bill Clinton's National Security Council (NSC) was given this assignment. Wilson had become a vocal opponent of President Bush's policies in Iraq after contributing to Al Gore in the last election cycle and John Kerry in this one."
"During a long conversation with a senior administration official, I asked why Wilson was assigned the mission to Niger. He said Wilson had been sent by the CIA's counterproliferation section at the suggestion of one of its employees, his wife. It was an offhand revelation from this official, who is no partisan gunslinger. When I called another official for confirmation, he said: "Oh, you know about it." The published report that somebody in the White House failed to plant this story with six reporters and finally found me as a willing pawn is simply untrue."
IMO, he did it on purpose, just for 15 minutes of fame.
He did it to correct the out and out lies that Joe Wilson and the Democrats were and have been telling for the last two years.
Did you not read the Senate Intelligence Committee report on this? Wilson LIED.
And Novak did NOT do it "for his 15 minutes of fame." Anybody who says that, hasn't been paying attention.
I think Lawrence is due for another Meltdown!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.