Grand Jury Gets Rove Testimony Over C.I.A. Leak

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Karl Rove, the senior counselor to President Bush, testified for several hours on Wednesday before the federal grand jury in the C.I.A. leak case, in an appearance that was a sign of renewed attention by the special prosecutor in a matter that has lingered unresolved for months. It was the fifth time Mr. Rove has appeared before a federal grand jury in the case.

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On Wednesday, Mr. Rove spent about four hours inside the federal courthouse after entering through a side door shortly before 12:30 p.m. He emerged beaming as usual at the end of his testimony. He declined to comment, but his lawyer, Robert D. Luskin, issued a statement declaring that Mr. Rove had testified "voluntarily and unconditionally" about "a matter" that had arisen since Mr. Rove's last grand jury appearance. The unresolved matter appears to involve the testimony of Viveca Novak, a former reporter at Time magazine, who told Mr. Fitzgerald last fall that she may have unwittingly helped Mr. Rove by telling Mr. Luskin he had played a bigger role in the case than he had initially admitted.

Since Mr. Libby's indictment, Mr. Fitzgerald has summoned both Ms. Novak and Mr. Luskin to provide grand jury testimony about their conversations, and he also summoned Bob Woodward of The Washington Post to discuss conversations related to the C.I.A. leak matter with an administration official who has still not been publicly identified.
Mr. Rove's appearance suggests that Mr. Fitzgerald remains interested in learning more about why, in his initial testimony to the grand jury, in February 2004, Mr. Rove failed to disclose that he had ever discussed the issue of Valerie Wilson, a C.I.A. operative, with any reporters.

Mr. Rove came forward months later to change his story, acknowledging that he had a phone conversation with Matthew Cooper of Time magazine in the summer of 2003 that eventually turned to the subject of Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, the C.I.A. operative's husband. Mr. Rove said he had forgotten the call, one of hundreds he participates in each day. Lawyers for Mr. Rove have maintained that he will be exonerated in the case, in part because he volunteered details of his conversation with Mr. Cooper. Since then, however, Ms. Novak, who worked alongside Mr. Cooper at the magazine, has said that she told Mr. Rove's lawyer, in several conversations in early 2004, that she believed his client had been a source for Mr. Cooper.


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