Posted on 07/14/2005 9:13:31 PM PDT by HAL9000
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Presidential confidant Karl Rove testified to a grand jury that he learned the identity of a CIA operative originally from journalists, then informally discussed the information with a Time magazine reporter days before the story broke, according to a person briefed on the testimony.The person, who works in the legal profession and spoke only on condition of anonymity because of the secrecy of grand jury proceedings, told The Associated Press that Rove testified last year that he remembers specifically being told by columnist Robert Novak that Valerie Plame, the wife of a harsh Iraq war critic, worked for the CIA.
Rove testified that Novak originally called him the Tuesday before Plame's identity was revealed in July 2003 to discuss another story. The conversation eventually turned to former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who was strongly criticizing the Bush administration's Iraq war policy and the intelligence it used to justify the war, the source said.
The person said Rove testified that Novak told him he had learned and planned to report in a weekend column that Wilson's wife, Plame, had worked for the CIA, and the circumstances on how her husband traveled to Africa to check bogus claims of alleged nuclear material sales to Iraq.
Novak's column, citing two Bush administration officials, appeared six days later, touching off a political firestorm and leading to a federal criminal investigation into who leaked Plame's undercover identity. That probe has ensnared presidential aides and reporters in a two-year legal battle.
Rove told the grand jury that by the time Novak had called him, he believes he had similar information about Wilson's wife from another reporter but had no recollection of which reporter had told him about it first, the source said.
When Novak inquired about Wilson's wife working for the CIA, Rove indicated he had heard something like that, according to the source's recounting of the grand jury testimony.
Rove told the grand jury that four days later, he had a phone conversation with Time magazine reporter Matt Cooper and _ in an effort to discredit some of Wilson's allegations _ told Cooper that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA, though he never used her name.
An e-mail Cooper recently provided the grand jury shows Cooper reported to his magazine bosses that Rove had described Wilson's wife in a confidential conversation as someone who "apparently works" at the CIA.
Robert Luskin, Rove's attorney, said Thursday his client truthfully testified to the grand jury and expected to be exonerated.
"Karl provided all pertinent information to prosecutors a long time ago," Luskin said. "And prosecutors confirmed when he testified most recently in October 2004 that he is not a target of the investigation."
Rove's conversation with Cooper took place five days after Wilson suggested in a New York Times opinion piece that some of the intelligence related to Iraq's nuclear weapons program was twisted to exaggerate the Iraqi threat. Novak's column identifying Wilson's wife as a CIA employee and Cooper's magazine piece came out a few days later.
Pressed to explain its statements of two years ago that Rove wasn't involved in the leak, the White House refused to do so this week.
"If I were to get into discussing this, I would be getting into discussing an investigation that continues and could be prejudging the outcome of the investigation," McClellan said.
This story was just reported on FNC - the whole DemoncRAT + Media / LIAR Wilson conspiracy is collapsing under its own weight.
Man, I love nights like these!
As the guy up the thread said:
ROTFLMAO!!!!
Whether Novak related this to Rove or the other way around, it seems neither broke the Espionage Act of 1982. Perjury or obstruction may be an issue. But there was no illigal leak of the name of a covert operator. Is that what you see?
What was leaked which was illegal?
10,000? I think that's a very low number.
The "views" on some posts are incredible........
Someone told Novak, someone told Rove, Someone told Cooper... one person is sitting in Jail refusing to reveal her source and is the only person who didn't write an article of the three journalists' involved...
Those are ignorant quotes from DU.
You know, a few laughs about this aren't going to be enough for me this time; they went way beyond what needed to be said.
I thought Wilson made this vindictively personal.....I need to see somebody hurt over this.
Best of all was Sen. Schumer's performance today.
You know, it seems to come down to the fact that Bush and his administration are at their core, honest people. They didn't have to keep their stories straight....just tell the truth. The dems tried to weave the deceit so intricately that it is imploding before their eyes. Before FR they may have gotten away with it.
The truth comes out only because the MSM is challenged by the pajama brigades.
Before I go to bed, I have to say that I have another take on this: "Times story says that... Rove said "You heard it too", confirming the Plame story."
Saying "you heard it too" does not mean confirmation of a rumor, but that another heard the same rumor. My sister and I recently had a conversation and she said something similar to me on another subject. Her reply was quite close to those words, "you heard that too?"
Just a thought.
Agreed, but there was no leak of protected information. They were having a legal conversation as far as I can tell.
I agree. I have yet to see a report in the MSM that says it's illegal to leak grand jury testimony. No outrage, no concern, just reporting it like the lap dogs they are. And, by the way, just who is Judith Miller doing time for? Certainly not Rove. I think others are right -- the truth of her leaker is bad for the left, not the right.
With all this nothing, I'd bet he'd informally disagree at this point.
If the NYT story is true and Novak told Rove about Plame, then could Novak have also been Judy Miller's source? Maybe she's covering for Novak. It's clear to me that the bond between journalists is greater than any political allegiance... look at papers like the Wash Times writing editorials for a federal shield law to cover mostly liberal journalists.
I don't know.. just a thought. And maybe one that isn't even possible.
Gosh, even the panel on Brit's show tonight were laughing at him........saying that everybody knows the most dangerous place in America is between Schumer and a TV camera.
I'm glad he wrapped himself up in the story; he can go down the tubes with Joe Wilson.
After all, Schumer is the A$$ who demanded this "investigation."
That's why I want this read into the senate records as a follow up to Reid's amendment, I want that specifically mentioned in the record.
I'm sketchy about that source; I think Judith Miller is a source, but I'm just not sure to who: probably Scooter Libby, who then told Rove?
But she's covering for whoever told her -- or for the fact that she is the leaker.
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