Get Your Democrat Booster Hat Now.
Posted on 07/14/2005 9:32:15 PM PDT by blake6900
Source: Rove Got CIA Agent ID From Media By JOHN SOLOMON, Associated Press Writer
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.
On Thursday, Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada pressed for legislation to strip Rove of his clearance for classified information, which he said President Bush should already have done. Instead, Reid said, the Bush administration has attacked its critics: "This is what is known as a cover-up. This is an abuse of power."
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said Democrats were resorting to "partisan war chants."
Across the Capitol, Rep. Rush Holt (news, bio, voting record), D-N.J., introduced legislation for an investigation that would compel senior administration officials to turn over records relating to the Plame disclosure.
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," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.
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Associated Press special correspondent David Espo contributed to this story.
Chris Lehane was involved in this scandal since May of 2003. I read time and againg that this story was dead on arrival until Lehand shopped it to the media.
A Grand Jury witness (or, with permission, his attorney) can say anything about his testimony. Others cannot.
Yep...and Wilson also knows Miller and the NYT would never out him.
LOL!!
Ok,that solves that mystery.
"Anyway, Wilson doesn't work for the CIA, so he can't really leak security secrets, but his wife can."
You actually have this backwards. Under the law, Plame could not be prosecuted for "outing" herself (if she was covert, which she wasn't).
But Wilson could be.
"It's possible, but Judith Miller didn't write anything about this issue. She was just pulled in for talking to the source to ask about "other issues", according to the prosecutors. My guess is that she was brought in to ask her what other security information Plame was passing to her."
Miller was pulled in because she had a conversation with someone at the WH on this subject on July 6th--the date of the Wilson editorial.
Fitzgerald knows who she talked to, he wants to hear what she says she said to them. That is what Miller is hiding.
Odds are, given the date, Miller was the first to tell anyone at the WH about Plame. And Fitzgerald wants to know where she got the info.
Given Miller's extensive contacts from her long work on the WMD issue (she's written books about it, you know), it could have been anybody. But NOT Rove or Libby.
You make a very good point. We've been told that Miller went to jail because she wouldn't reveal her source(s) to the grand jury. In truth, she went to jail because she refused to testify before the grand jury. She has not answered any questions. Not wanting to name sources is a convenient and, to the MSM, noble reason for not showing up. But perhaps, and here's where you and I may differ, she not only knew about the plot to destroy GW but was part of it.
Sitting in jail makes Miller look like a hero. Pleading the fifth in a grand jury hearing does not.
"But perhaps, and here's where you and I may differ, she not only knew about the plot to destroy GW but was part of it."
Actually, we don't differ. I think that she was an integral part of this plot scheme. We hear about how the CIA got along with her and considered her to be an ally. She was an ally of the left wingers who controlled the CIA under the Clintoons.
Also as Rush has noted, I would like the relationship between Wilson and Senator Chucky investigated. I bet those two were in on this plan.
It wasn't Plame's identity that is the main issue. She wasn't covert, anyway. I think that it is other classified information that was making it's way out of the CIA that is the concern of this investigation.
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