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Rove Told Jury Libby May Have Been His Source In
Leak Case
Top Aides Talked Before Plame's Name Was Public
By Jim VandeHei and Carol D. Leonnig
Washington Post Staff Writers
10/20/05 "Washington
Post" -- -- White House adviser Karl Rove
told the grand jury in the CIA leak case that I. Lewis "Scooter"
Libby, Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, may have told him
that CIA operative Valerie Plame worked for the intelligence
agency before her identity was revealed, a source familiar with
Rove's account said yesterday.
In a talk that took place in the days before Plame's CIA
employment was revealed in 2003, Rove and Libby discussed
conversations they had had with reporters in which Plame and her
marriage to Iraq war critic Joseph C. Wilson IV were raised, the
source said. Rove told the grand jury the talk was confined to
information the two men heard from reporters, the source said.
Rove has also testified that he also heard about Plame from
someone else outside the White House, but could not recall who.
The account is the first time a person familiar with Rove's
testimony has provided clues about where the deputy chief of
staff learned about Plame, and confirmed that Rove and Libby
were involved in a conversation about her before her identity
became public. The disclosure seemed to further undermine the
White House's contention early in the case that neither man was
in any way involved in unmasking Plame.
But it leaves unanswered the central question of the more than
two-year-old case: Did anyone commit a crime in leaking
information about Plame to the media?
Libby's lawyer, Joseph Tate, did not return calls for comment
last night. Rove's attorney, Robert Luskin, declined to comment.
The development was first reported last night by the Associated
Press.
Lawyers in the case have said Rove and Libby are the central
focus of Special Prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald's 22-month
investigation, which is scheduled to end by the time the grand
jury expires Oct. 28. But they are not the only officials
worried about the uncertain conclusion to the case.
John Hannah, an aide to Cheney and one of two dozen people
questioned in the CIA leak case, has told friends in recent
months he is worried he may be implicated by the investigation,
according to two U.S. officials.
It is not clear whether Hannah had any role in unmasking Plame,
or why he should fear Fitzgerald's probe. But the eleventh-hour
emergence of another possible target shows how Fitzgerald has
cast his net so widely over the past two years that it is
impossible to know who, if anyone, it might ensnare.
Fitzgerald and his team have interviewed or taken before the
grand jury at least two dozen officials or staffers from the
White House, the vice president's office, the State Department
and the CIA, according to people involved in the case.
Fitzgerald has dug into the deepest corners of the
administration, pressing for information about everything from
the mechanics of a secretive group of officials tasked with
selling the Iraq war, to the State Department officials who
assembled information on Wilson, the diplomat-turned-Iraq war
critic, according to people familiar with the case. The focus
has been on who leaked Plame's name, and who else knew about it.
But many unknowns remain. What role did Hannah play? What, if
any, role was played by former White House spokesman Ari
Fleischer? Who was the second source for Robert D. Novak, the
columnist who first disclosed Plame's name and role in July
2003? Who was the White House official who leaked word about
Wilson's wife to The Washington Post's Walter Pincus, who has
never publicly revealed his source?
It is possible the public will never learn the answers to these
and other questions because Fitzgerald is not required to
produce a report and could complete the investigation without
charging anyone with a crime.
But White House officials and lawyers are prepared for
Fitzgerald to charge at least one official, and maybe more.
Fitzgerald began the probe seeking to determine whether any
government official illegally leaked Plame's identity to the
media in retaliation for Wilson's criticism that the
administration had twisted intelligence to justify the invasion
of Iraq. Wilson, who had traveled on a CIA-sponsored mission to
Niger, had questioned President Bush's assertion that Baghdad
had tried to obtain uranium in Africa for a nuclear weapons
program.
The new information about Hannah signals how broadly the
prosecutor has probed for answers. As Cheney's deputy national
security adviser, he was intimately involved in Iraq policy.
Hannah is one of at least five people in the Cheney operation
who have been interviewed by federal investigators.
Fitzgerald's interest in the vice president's office became
clearer as the case continued: Cheney was central to building
the case that then-Iraqi President Saddam Hussein sought nuclear
weapons-grade material in Niger and Libby helped discredit
Wilson in part by talking about his wife, according to lawyers
in the case.
Fitzgerald talked to Cheney personally near the beginning of the
investigation, though according to a person familiar with the
case, he has not questioned him since. Fitzgerald and his
investigative team interviewed Mary Matalin, a former top Cheney
adviser; Catherine Martin, his former communications adviser;
and Jennifer Millerwise, his former spokeswoman.
Among the media, most of the focus has been on New York Times
reporter Judith Miller, who spent 85 days in jail before
agreeing to testify about her conversations with Libby, and Time
magazine's Matt Cooper, the other reporter whom Fitzgerald
threatened to jail if he did not reveal his sources.
Cooper, after receiving permission from sources, testified
before the grand jury and later said publicly that Rove and
Libby had talked to him about Plame. But other reporters were
contacted by other White House officials about Plame during the
crucial week in July 2003 after Wilson's views became public,
according to government officials and people involved in the
case.
This leaves open the possibility of a broader leak campaign. In
September of 2003, a senior administration official told The
Post that at least six journalists were contacted about Plame by
two top White House officials.
One of the longest-running mysteries of the case is the identity
of Novak's second source. Rove has testified that he discussed
Plame in passing with Novak, but it is not clear who else did.
Novak has provided scant information about the person's
identity. It is unknown whether Novak has cooperated with
Fitzgerald, but many familiar with the case believe he has
because he did not face the same contempt of court charges
levied against Miller and Cooper.
A member of the staff of James Hamilton, Novak's lawyer, said he
had no comment.
Pincus, who spoke with Fitzgerald early in the case after his
source said he could, has never revealed who told him that
Wilson's wife helped arrange the trip to Niger. Pincus has said
the source was not Libby, and has described the person as a
"White House official" who called him. The source came forward
to the prosecutor and released Pincus to discuss their
conversation with Fitzgerald but not with the public.
Many White House officials have been called before the grand
jury, including spokesman Scott McClellan, senior adviser Dan
Bartlett, former communications aide Adam Levine and Fleischer,
among others. Bush spoke personally with Fitzgerald early in the
probe.
One reason Fitzgerald expressed interest in Fleischer,
administration officials said, is his presence on a July 2003
presidential trip to Africa. On that flight aboard Air Force
One, then-Secretary of State Colin L. Powell had a memo that
mentioned Wilson's wife, in a section marked "S" for secret,
according to some administration officials. But Powell said on
CNN this week the memo he saw did not mention Plame.
According to people involved in the case, prosecutors believe a
printout of that memo was in the front of Air Force One during
the July 7-12 trip Bush took to Africa, but investigators are
unsure who saw it. The prosecutor has also examined the role of
Stephen J. Hadley, Bush's national security adviser. In an
e-mail that surfaced earlier this year, Rove told Hadley, then
deputy national security adviser, about his conversation with
Cooper, saying he waved the reporter off Wilson's allegations.
The e-mail was not turned over until long after the probe began.
One person in the probe said Fitzgerald showed considerable
early interest in the White House Iraq Group, a task force
created by Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. in August 2002 and
charged with "marketing" the war in Iraq to the public.
The group met weekly in the Situation Room. Its regular
participants were Rove, Libby, Hadley, then-national security
adviser Condoleezza Rice, adviser Karen Hughes, Matalin, and
White House director of legislative affairs Nicholas Calio.
The special prosecutor has talked to a number of Foggy Bottom
officials about the State Department memo, drafted about a month
before Plame's identity was disclosed. Fitzgerald has questioned
Powell about his knowledge of the document, according to people
familiar with the case.
Former CIA director George J. Tenet and ex-deputy director John
E. McLaughlin, were both interviewed by prosecutors. Bill
Harlow, CIA public affairs director, went before the grand jury
and was questioned about a conversation he had with Novak before
Novak's column appeared. Sources said he was contacted by Novak
about the Plame information and told him not to publish her name
or information about her.
Staff writer Dafna Linzner contributed to this report.
© 2005 The Washington Post Company
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