Saturday, July 02, 2005

Confirmed

Rove is one of the sources listed in Cooper's notes.
    Initially, Fitzgerald's focus was on Novak's sourcing, since Novak was the first to out Plame. But according to Luskin, Rove's lawyer, Rove spoke to Cooper three or four days before Novak's column appeared. Luskin told NEWSWEEK that Rove "never knowingly disclosed classified information" and that "he did not tell any reporter that Valerie Plame worked for the CIA."
Luskin doesn't seem to rule out that Rove told Cooper that Joe Wilson's wife was Valerie Plame. Whether or not Rove did this knowing Plame was an undercover CIA agent is the central question. What we have here, is Rove, and probably a few others in the White House Iraq Group are going to try and claim that a) they didn't know Plame was an undercover agent and so b) they cant be convicted of a crime they didn't "knowingly" commit.

However, Newsweek concludes with:
    But one of the two lawyers representing a witness sympathetic to the White House told NEWSWEEK that there was growing "concern" in the White House that the prosecutor is interested in Rove. Fitzgerald declined to comment.

    In early October 2003, NEWSWEEK reported that immediately after Novak's column appeared in July, Rove called MSNBC "Hardball" host Chris Matthews and told him that Wilson's wife was "fair game." But White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters at the time that any suggestion that Rove had played a role in outing Plame was "totally ridiculous." On Oct. 10, McClellan was asked directly if Rove and two other White House aides had ever discussed Valerie Plame with any reporters. McClellan said he had spoken with all three, and "those individuals assured me they were not involved in this."

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