Lawyer Defends Rove, O'Donnell Does Not Buy It

By: E&P Staff An attorney for Karl Rove, President Bush's chief political adviser, confirmed to the Washington Post and Los Angeles Times on Saturday that his client did speak with Time magazine's Matthew Cooper in July 2003. But the lawyer said Rove never identified Valerie Plame as a CIA operative to Cooper in those conversations.

The attorney, Robert Luskin said that Patrick Fitzgerald, the special prosecutor in the Plame case, assured him in October and again last week that Rove is not a target of his investigation.

"Karl did nothing wrong. Karl didn't disclose Valerie Plame's identity to Mr. Cooper or anybody else," Luskin told the Post's Carol D. Leonnig. Luskin said the question remains unanswered: "Who outed this woman? ... It wasn't Karl."

MSNBC political analyst Lawrence O'Donnell and Newsweek's Michael Isikoff had revealed, in recent hours, that Rove's name turned up in the notes Time Inc. turned over to a federal judge on Friday.

"Cooper has said that more than one confidential source is identified in his e-mails and the notes of interviews he conducted in July 2003," the Post reported.

Rove answered questions under oath before a grand jury on Oct. 15. According to Luskin, the prosecutor said he believes Rove was candid about his contact with reporters. "I've been assured by the prosecutor they have no reason to doubt the honesty of anything he's said," Luskin said.

O'Donnell responded Sunday with a post at the Huffington Post web site: "Luskin claimed that the prosecutor 'asked us not to talk about what Karl has had to say.' This is highly unlikely. Prosecutors have absolutely no control over what witnesses say when they leave the grand jury room. Rove can tell us word-for-word what he said to the grand jury and would if he thought it would help him....

"If what I have reported is not true, if Karl Rove is not Matt Cooper?s source, Rove could prove that instantly by telling us what he told the grand jury. Nothing prevents him from doing that, except a good lawyer who is trying to keep him out of jail."

Richard B. Schmitt in the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday night; "In confirming the conversation between Rove and Cooper, Rove attorney Robert Luskin stressed that the presidential adviser 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."

Cooper and New York Times reporter Judith Miller face four months in jail as early as Wednesday for defying a federal judge's order to cooperate with Fitzgerald's investigation.