If Rove actually did something wrong, why would he release the reporter from his confidentiality so they guy wouldn't have to go to jail??? If Rove was interested in hiding something he would have let the reporter go to jail. Obviously Rove had nothing to hide.
And more importantly if the reporter or Time magazine knew that Karl Rove did something wrong he would have outed him to the public very quickly and long time ago when it may have really mattered during the 2004 election campaign.