WASHINGTON, July 13 - President Bush said Wednesday that he would withhold judgment on whether Karl Rove, his senior adviser and political strategist, had identified an undercover C.I.A. operative in a conversation with a reporter for Time magazine.
Mr. Bush's comment came nearly two years after he suggested that he would fire anyone in his administration who had knowingly leaked the identity of the operative, Valerie Wilson. Her naming has led to a federal grand jury investigation.
On Wednesday, in his first remarks on the matter since the disclosure that Mr. Rove had alluded to the Central Intelligence Agency officer in a background interview in July 2003 with Matthew Cooper, a White House correspondent for Time, Mr. Bush held that it would be wrong to discuss the case while the investigation was under way.
"I have instructed every member of my staff to fully cooperate in this investigation," Mr. Bush told reporters after a cabinet meeting. "I also will not prejudge the investigation based on media reports."
Mr. Bush neither criticized nor defended Mr. Rove. But Mr. Rove sat directly behind him as he spoke, sending a visual signal that he remained on the job and at the president's elbow, where he has been throughout Mr. Bush's political career.