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Rove Talked But Did Not Tattle, Attorney Says
The Bush advisor spoke with a Time reporter days before a CIA
operative was outed.

By Richard B. Schmitt, Times Staff Writer


WASHINGTON — Karl Rove, one of President Bush's closest advisors,
spoke with a Time magazine reporter days before the name of a CIA
operative surfaced in the press, but did not leak the confidential
information, a lawyer for Rove said Saturday in a new admission in the
case.

Rove spoke to Time reporter Matthew Cooper in July 2003, before a
syndicated column revealed the identity of operative Valerie Plame,
the wife of Bush administration critic and former U.S. Ambassador
Joseph C. Wilson IV.

Cooper is one of two reporters who has been held in contempt of court
for not cooperating with a federal investigation into who leaked
Plame's identity. Although Wilson once said he suspected that Rove had
played a role in destroying his wife's CIA cover, the White House
dismissed questions about Rove's actions as "totally ridiculous."

In confirming the conversation between Rove and Cooper, Rove's
attorney, Robert Luskin, emphasized that the presidential advisor did
not reveal any secrets. But the disclosure raised new questions about
Rove and the precise role of the White House in the apparent national
security breach as Cooper and another reporter, Judith Miller of the
New York Times, faced imminent jail terms.

Time Inc., under pressure from a federal judge and over Cooper's
objections, turned over e-mail records and other internal documents to
a special prosecutor Friday, identifying sources that Cooper used to
report and write on the politically charged case. A Time spokeswoman
declined to say Saturday whether Rove was among sources mentioned in
the documents.

Cooper and Miller could be jailed as soon as Wednesday for refusing to
cooperate in the investigation. Time, which was separately held in
contempt in the case, said that it hoped its cooperation meant that
Cooper would not be incarcerated.

Rove, Bush's deputy chief of staff and longtime political strategist,
testified before a grand jury investigating the Plame case on three
occasions. His latest appearance was in October 2004, about the same
time the prosecutor investigating the case said his probe was complete
with the exception of testimony from Cooper and Miller.

Special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald is investigating the alleged
outing of Plame by Robert Novak, a columnist and CNN pundit, on July
14, 2003. Some suspect that the White House leaked her name in
retaliation for a July 6, 2003, op-ed piece in the New York Times
written by Wilson, her husband. He accused the administration of
twisting intelligence to justify the invasion of Iraq.

Fitzgerald interviewed many other White House officials and
journalists, including Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. Although
Novak was the first to publish Plame's name, Fitzgerald has indicated
that whoever leaked the information to Novak also might have revealed
her identity to other journalists. That could constitute separate
violations of a federal law that protects the identity of undercover
CIA personnel.

Prosecutions are rare, however, because they require showing that the
leak was intentionally disclosed and that the person leaking the
information knew the government was trying to conceal it.

Fitzgerald asked Cooper and Time for documents and testimony relating
to conversations Cooper had with official sources about Wilson, Plame
or her ties to the CIA in the period before the publication of Novak's
column. Cooper wrote about the case on Time's website after the Novak
column appeared.

Luskin, Rove's attorney, acknowledged in an interview Saturday that
Cooper and Rove had spoken days before Novak's column, in a
conversation that was initiated by Cooper.

"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. "He did not
disclose any confidential information about anybody to Cooper or to
anybody else."

Luskin said he would not "characterize the substance of the
conversation," which was covered in the testimony Rove provided to the
grand jury investigating the leak. "The folks in Fitzgerald's office
have asked us not to talk about what Karl has had to say," Luskin
said.

Luskin said Rove had been assured by prosecutors that he was not a
target of the investigation. "We were advised recently that his status
has not changed," he added.

"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," Luskin added. "Nobody has
suggested to us ever that they think that there are any problems about
whether they think he is being candid."

But Newsweek magazine reported on its website Saturday that Rove was
one of Cooper's sources identified in notes that Time turned over to
Fitzgerald. And separately, MSNBC political analyst Lawrence O'Donnell
said in a taped TV program that he had information indicating Rove was
one of Cooper's sources. O'Donnell's comments were made in a segment
of "The McLaughlin Group" that was set to air in Los Angeles on PBS
Saturday night.

Cooper's lawyer, Richard Sauber, declined to discuss Rove's role in
Cooper's work, saying in response to an e-mail message, "We're not
going to discuss one way or another what the [documents turned over by
Time] say."

In court papers filed Friday arguing against his possible confinement,
Cooper's lawyers said if he were to break promises of confidentiality,
"his ability to continue as an effective reporter would be seriously
jeopardized."

In letters to the court accompanying his plea, fellow journalists
discussed this principle.

"Journalists must honor their promises which protect the bad along
with the good," said Margaret Carlson, a Time columnist and colleague
of Cooper. "We can't separate them like the darks and the whites in
the laundry."