Rove's lawyer says he talked to Cooper but did not leak name

[quaoar]

Lawyer Says Rove Talked to Reporter, Did Not Leak Name

By Carol D. Leonnig
The Washington Post

WASHINGTON — Karl Rove, President Bush’s chief political adviser, spoke with Time magazine’s Matthew Cooper during a critical week in July 2003 when Cooper was reporting on a public critic of the Bush administration who was also the husband of a CIA operative, his lawyer confirmed Saturday.

Rove is identified in Cooper’s notes from that time period, which Time turned over Friday to special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald — under court order. Fitzgerald is investigating whether senior administration officials leaked CIA operative Valerie Plame’s name to reporters in July 2003 as retaliation after her husband, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, publicly accused the Bush administration of twisting intelligence to justify a war with Iraq.

Rove’s lawyer said Rove never identified Plame to Cooper in those conversations. More significantly, Robert Luskin said, Fitzgerald 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 said. Luskin said the question remains unanswered: “Who outed this woman? ... It wasn’t Karl.”

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002356167_webrove02.html

[lancdem]

1. Maybe Rove isn't a target for leaking the name

but for perjury or something else.

[LightningFlash]

2. Luskin is lying sounds like...

....A double perjury? :mad:

Fitzergald is quarterbacking, merely making it "appear" he's really after Libby is what I bet. :argh: :argh:

[MidwestTransplant]

5. It's his Lawyer. What else is he going to say.

He would get disbarred for saying anything else.

[quaoar]

9. Actually

A lawyer can be disbarred or otherwise disciplined if he allows his client to testify to something that he (the lawyer) knows to be false.

[MidwestTransplant]

But he (lawyer) can also say whatever he wants to the press.

This is the best damage control they can do other than calling Cooper a liar which would go noplace.

[quaoar]

14. Rove has to deny it

If he admits it, there's no way he can avoid resignation.

[LightningFlash]

17. Precisely the point.

This is the same thing as the Tony Blair non denial, denial...

Blair lied to go to war and fucked the UK, but he did it before going to the UN so he thinks he should deserve a free pass.

:evilgrin: :evilgrin:

[orleans]

18. where's oldleftielawyer? let's ask him! n/t

[mohinoaklawnillinois]

3. The whitewash begins...n/t

[no_hypocrisy]

4. "[I tried marijuana], but I didn't inhale . . . "

[shraby]

6. Rove's lawyer only knows what Rove told him.

S'pose Rove had a truthful moment with his lawyer? Nawwww, never would happen that Rove told the truth.

[LiberalFighter]

10. I was forced to try smoking a cigarette...

and I didn't inhale. Cousins tried to get me to take a puff. TRUE

I exhale and never again had a cigarette to my mouth. Unfortunately, I end up inhaling when others around me smoke. But a lot of times I will hold my breath until I am past the smoke area.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

7. Perhaps he spoke with

:think:

[Ioo]

11. Here is what I think....

Karl is spooning with Gannon, and her name was leaked during some pillow talk..

Karl: "Wow Jeff, that was great, I don't think I will be able to sit down for a week"

Jeff: "Thanks, as long as I am in the Press Pool, I won't charge ya"

Karl: "I know sweety, oh by the way, I have something I want you to leak"

Jeff: "Your ass, is leaking, anything else?"

Karl: "Listen silly, I want you to get something over to a real news name, like Robert "Horse teeth" Novack."

Jeff: What is it, I have an appointment with Robert's ass in abot 2 hours.."

Karl: Okay, ...


That is how it was leaked!

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

15. Ludicrous!

It's well known that Gannon's turnaround time was four hours! There is no way that he could service Rove and then be up Novak's ass in a mere two hours! No way, no how!


Unless he's had a prosthetic implanted. :tinfoilhat:

[geckosfeet]

29. Altoids dude. Lots of altoids.

[Olney Blue]

21. LOL

:smoke:

Pillow talk- I like it!

[Ioo]

8. I think rove did it...

He will walk...

From what I have seen of this man, he will stop at nothing to distroy anyone who crosses him...

He also thinks be is better than the law, just look at this adminstrations actions....

I bet $100 that he even looks at this forum...

[bemildred]

12. He did it out of principle, so he should not go to jail. nt

[tedoll78]

13. "It depends on what your definition of 'leak' is..."

:rofl:

[Supersedeas]

16. this woman??? Remember someone else saying that?

[orleans]

19. okay, okay, i believe it. rove never said valerie plame.

he said:
"first name rhymes with gallery and starts with a V.
last name rhymes with flame and starts with a P."

(pause)

"Novak! Are you there? Wake up you old piece of shit! I said: first name rhymes with gallery...."

[thinkingwoman]

20. rofl

you got me with the post pause line.

[leesa]

22. I see, they were talking about the ball game. Uh huh!

[VegasWolf]

23. Drudge is now carrying the story for all the world to see. Happy 4th of

July Mr. Rove! This should bring the religious nutcases out of the woodwork.

[quaoar]

24. LA Times quotes lawyer saying Rove not a target

Luskin, Rove’s attorney, acknowledged in an interview Saturday 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.

[VegasWolf]

25. Larger issue. Who in the WH gave Rove the info? C. Rice or Cheney?

Rove certainly never had the clearance for top secret CIA intel
of an employee's family. That info is super secret.

[quaoar]

26. Here's more from Newsweek

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8445696/site/newsweek

Initially, Fitzgerald's focus was on Novak's sourcing, since Novak was the first to out Plame. But according to Luskin, Rove's lawyer, Rove spoke to Cooper three or four days before Novak's column appeared. Luskin told NEWSWEEK that Rove "never knowingly disclosed classified information" and that "he did not tell any reporter that Valerie Plame worked for the CIA." Luskin declined, however, to discuss any other details. He did say that Rove himself had testified before the grand jury "two or three times" and signed a waiver authorizing reporters to testify about their conversations with him. "He has answered every question that has been put to him about his conversations with Cooper and anybody else," Luskin said. But one of the two lawyers representing a witness sympathetic to the White House told NEWSWEEK that there was growing "concern" in the White House that the prosecutor is interested in Rove. Fitzgerald declined to comment.

[LightningFlash]

27. Hmmm looks like the story is quickly widening...

I wonder how that could be? :evilgrin:

[Julius Civitatus]

They are already whitewashing the issue

So how exactly did he manage to reveal the identity of Plame without "naming" her? Bullcrap!

It's like what he meaning of "is" is... you know.

[Julius Civitatus]

28. They are already whitewashing the issue

So how exactly did he manage to reveal the identity of Plame without "naming" her? Bullcrap!

It's like what he meaning of "is" is... you know.