Rove testifies in leak probe
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| Fri, 10-15-2004 - 3:13pm |
Rove testifies in leak probe
Bush aide speaks for two hours
Karl Rove, President Bush’s chief political strategist, has already spoken to investigators once before.
The Associated Press
Updated: 2:50 p.m. ET Oct. 15, 2004
WASHINGTON - President Bush’s top political adviser, Karl Rove, testified Friday before the federal grand jury trying to determine who leaked the name of an undercover CIA officer.
Rove spent more than two hours testifying before the panel, according to an administration official who spoke only on condition of anonymity because such proceedings are secret.
Rove has been interviewed at least once previously by investigators in the leak case, as have Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Colin Powell and other senior administration officials.
Trent Duffy, a spokesman for the White House, referred questions to the Justice Department. The special prosecutor in the case, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald of Chicago, declined to comment through a spokesman.
The investigation concerns whether a crime was committed when someone leaked the identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame, whose name was published by syndicated columnist Robert Novak on July 14, 2003.
Novak’s column appeared after Plame’s husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, wrote a newspaper opinion article criticizing Bush’s claim that Iraq had sought uranium in Niger, a claim the CIA had asked Wilson to check out. Wilson has said he believes his wife’s name was leaked as retribution.
Wilson has accused Rove of spreading word of the Novak column to reporters. In a widely quoted remark, he said after a speech in 2003 that it might be “fun to see Karl Rove frog-marched out of the White House in handcuffs.â€
Reporters under scrutiny
U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan has ordered two reporters held in contempt for refusing to reveal confidential sources before the grand jury. Matthew Cooper of Time magazine was ordered jailed for up to 18 months this week, but Hogan suspended the jail time and a $1,000-a-day fine against Time pending an appeal.
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2nd reporter held in contempt in CIA leak probe
Hogan issued a nearly identical order against Judith Miller, a reporter for The New York Times, who is also refusing to name her sources. Miller and Cooper, who are represented by the same lawyer, are expected to join in appealing their cases on First Amendment grounds.
Disclosure of the identity of an undercover intelligence officer can be a federal crime, if prosecutors can show that the leak was intentional and that the leaker knew about the officer’s secret status.
Novak, who cited two senior administration officials as his sources, has refused to say whether he has testified or been subpoenaed.
© 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

What I don't understand about this story is why reporters from Time and the New York Times are being threatened with jail if they don't commit journalistic suicide and reveal their sources. If they're going to put someone in the hot seat here, shouldn't it be Bob Novak?
I saw Bob Novak being asked about this on CNN or NBC several months ago and he was acting very smug and almost cavalier about it. I think he is the logical one to be asking questions to.