A lawyer for presidential adviser Karl Rove has disclosed that his client spoke with a Time magazine reporter just days before the name of a CIA operative was leaked to the media, but he did not leak the confidential information.
Rove attorney Robert Luskin said that Rove did not reveal any secrets, and, furthermore, special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has assured him that the adviser is not a target of his investigation.
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According to Luskin, Rove spoke to Time reporter Matthew Cooper in July 2003 - a week before media reports revealed the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame, the wife of Bush administration critic and former special U.S. envoy Joseph Wilson.
"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.
Wilson has in the past said he suspected Rove played a role in revealing his wife's cover. Wilson believes the White House leaked her name in retaliation for a July 6, 2003 article in the New York Times written by Wilson, accusing the administration of using bogus intelligence to justify the invasion of Iraq.
Cooper is one of two reporters who have been held in contempt of court for not cooperating with a federal investigation into who revealed Plame's identity. Cooper and another reporter, Judith Miller of the New York Times, face jail terms that could start as early as Wednesday.
Meanwhile, in a bid to keep its reporter out of jail, Time Inc. turned over e-mail and other documents to a special prosecutor on Friday.
Reportedly, these documents identify sources Cooper used in his report, but thus far Time has refused to comment on whether or not the documents out Rove as among the sources who were revealed.
Rove has testified before a grand jury investigating the Plame case on three occasions. That grand jury is probing the alleged outing of Plame by syndicated columnist Robert Novak on July 14, 2003.
Luskin said, "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."
"Nobody has suggested to us ever that they think that there are any problems about whether they think he is being candid."
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