Rove says he didn't reveal secrets to reporters

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

Rove spoke to Time reporter Matthew Cooper in July 2003, during the week before published reports revealed the identity of operative Valerie Plame, the wife of Bush administration critic and former U.S. envoy 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 revealed Plame's identity. Although Wilson once said he suspected Rove played a role in destroying his wife's CIA cover, the White House has dismissed questions about Rove's actions as "totally ridiculous."

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.

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 Cooper used to report and write on the politically charged case. A Time spokeswoman today declined to say whether Rove was among the sources that were revealed.

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, has said that it hopes its cooperation will mean Cooper will not be incarcerated.

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

Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is investigating the alleged outing of Plame by syndicated columnist Robert Novak on July 14, 2003. Some suspect that the White House leaked her name in retaliation for a July 6, 2003 article in the New York Times written by Wilson, her husband, accusing the administration of using bogus intelligence to justify the war in Iraq.

Fitzgerald has interviewed many other White House officials and journalists, including Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. Novak was the first to publish Plame's name, but Fitzgerald has indicated that whoever leaked the information to Novak also might have leaked the information to other journalists, which could constitute separate violations of a federal law protecting covert agents.

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

Fitzgerald had asked Cooper and Time for documents and testimony relating to conversations Cooper had with "official sources" about Wilson or Plame or her ties to the CIA, before the Novak column was published. Cooper wrote about the case on the Time Web site after the Novak column appeared.

Luskin, Rove's attorney, acknowledged in an interview today that Cooper and Rove spoke the week before the Novak column appeared in a conversation which 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 is among the testimony that Rove has 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."