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Special Prosecutor's Probe
Centers on Rove, Memo, Phone Calls
Bloomberg
July 18, 2005
July 18 (Bloomberg) -- The fate of White House Deputy Chief of
Staff Karl Rove may rest with the old Watergate question: What
did he know and when did he know it?
Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation of the
leaking of a Central Intelligence Agency agent's name is now
focused on how Rove, one of President George W. Bush's closest
advisers, and other administration officials dealt with a key
fact in an equally key memo.
The memo, prepared by the State Department on July 7, 2003,
informed top administration officials that the wife of
ex-diplomat and Bush critic Joseph Wilson was a CIA agent. Seven
days later, Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, was publicly identified
as a CIA operative by syndicated columnist Robert Novak.
On the same day the memo was prepared, White House phone logs
show Novak placed a call to White House Press Secretary Ari
Fleischer, according to lawyers familiar with the case and a
witness who has testified before the grand jury. Those people say
it is not clear whether Fleischer returned the call, and
Fleischer has refused to comment.
The Novak call may loom large in the investigation because
Fleischer was among a group of administration officials who left
Washington later that day on a presidential trip to Africa. On
the flight to Africa, Fleischer was seen perusing the State
Department memo on Wilson and his wife, according to a former
administration official who was also on the trip.
In addition, on July 8, 2003, the day after the memo was sent,
Novak discussed Wilson and his wife with Rove, who had remained
in Washington, according to the New York Times.
The Times quoted an attorney familiar with Fitzgerald's probe
as saying that when Novak mentioned Wilson's wife worked for the
CIA, Rove said, ``Yeah, I've heard that too.''
Mission to Niger
Three days after that, on July 11, Rove also discussed Wilson
and his wife with Time Magazine reporter Matthew Cooper, Cooper
said yesterday. Rove told the reporter that Wilson's wife worked
for the CIA and had a hand in having Wilson sent to Niger in 2002
to check out reports that Saddam Hussein was trying to buy
uranium for a nuclear weapons program, Cooper said during an
appearance on NBC's ``Meet the Press'' program.
Cooper, who recently testified before the grand jury after a
long legal battle to keep his sources secret, said Vice President
Dick Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis ``Scooter'' Libby, told him
the same thing. Cooper said neither Rove nor Libby mentioned
Wilson's wife by name.
Bush, in Sept. 30, 2003, comments to reporters, said that ``if
somebody did leak classified information, I'd like to know it,
and we'll take the appropriate action.'' His remarks echoed those
of his spokesman, Scott McClellan, who had said the day before,
``If anyone in this administration was involved in it, they would
no longer be in this administration.''
On June 10, 2004, Bush answered ``Yes'' when asked whether he
whether he would fire anyone who leaked Plame's name.
Not by Name
Rove's attorney, Robert Luskin, has said that Rove mentioned
to Cooper that Wilson's wife was a CIA agent but did not identify
her by name.
In Time's July 18 edition, Cooper writes that Rove ended their
brief telephone conversation by saying, ``I've already said too
much.'' Cooper added that he was unsure whether that indicated
Rove knew he had revealed information he should not have
mentioned, or whether Rove was simply indicating he was pressed
for time and had to end the call.
As a result of these facts, the State Department memo has
become a central element in Fitzgerald's investigation of how
Plame came to be publicly identified as a CIA agent and whether
that violated a 1982 law making it a federal crime to divulge the
identity of a covert intelligence operative.
The memo was prepared by the department's Bureau of
Intelligence and Research at the request of then-Secretary of
State Colin Powell, according to current and former government
officials familiar with Powell's request.
Wilson's Article
Powell asked for it on July 6, 2003, the same day Wilson
published an opinion article in the New York Times revealing his
trip to Niger and his conclusion that there was no evidence to
support the claim that Hussein was seeking uranium there. Wilson
went on to accuse the Bush administration of ignoring his
findings and similar intelligence to make a case for war in
Iraq.
The current and former government officials say that the
report reached Powell sometime on July 7. It said Wilson had been
approved for the Niger trip by mid-level CIA officials on the
recommendation of his wife, a counter-proliferation expert at the
spy agency.
A key question will be which officials received the report and
when. The special prosecutor has subpoenaed telephone and fax
records from Air Force One and the White House.
Inner Circle
Fleischer, who saw the July 7 memo, wasn't part of Bush's
inner circle during his tenure as press secretary, while Rove was
at the heart of it. Given those facts, it seems highly doubtful
that Fleischer would have acted on the information in the memo
without the knowledge or approval of Rove and other top-level
White House officials.
The July 7 memo was largely a reproduction of an earlier State
Department report prepared around June 12. Another key question
that Fitzgerald is interested in, according to the grand jury
witness and the lawyers familiar with the case, is whether Rove
or Libby learned of this earlier report and, if so, shared its
content with reporters.
Rove's defenders say the recent revelations in the case --
some of which have emanated from his camp -- serve to exonerate
rather than implicate him.
They say those revelations show that Rove was not the original
source of Plame's identity for either Novak or Cooper. They note
that the 1982 law sets a high bar for prosecution: Fitzgerald
would have to prove that the person outing Plame did so knowingly
and in awareness that the government was trying to conceal her
identity.
Five-Year Window
In addition, the law only makes it illegal to divulge the
identity of an agent who worked overseas within the past five
years; Plame has lived in the U.S. since 1997.
Republican Party Chairman Ken Mehlman said yesterday on ``Meet
the Press'' that recent newspaper stories ``have the effect of
exonerating and vindicating Mr. Rove, not implicating him. That
information says Karl Rove was not Bob Novak's source, that Novak
told Rove, not the other way around, and it says that Karl warned
Matt Cooper about Joe Wilson.''
Others see difficulties in these arguments. They note the
inherent contradiction between Rove's testimony to the grand jury
that he learned Plame's name from Novak and his statement to
Novak during the July 8 phone call that ``I've heard that,
too.''
Potential Problem
This points toward a potential problem for Rove in the
direction of Fitzgerald's investigation. It now has expanded
beyond its original mission -- to determine if the 1982 law was
violated -- to encompass whether any White House officials,
including Rove and Fleischer, have testified falsely about the
case or obstructed justice by trying to cover up their
involvement in the leak, according to people familiar with the
case who cite a pattern of questioning by Fitzgerald.
In addition, there is strong reason to believe that Fitzgerald
is hunting big game, according to several legal experts. They say
that is demonstrated by the fact that he has done something that
no federal prosecutor has done in 30 years: send a reporter,
Judith Miller of the New York Times, to jail for refusing to
divulge with whom she spoke about the Wilson-Plame case.
``You wouldn't expect him to go to these lengths unless he
thought he had something serious to look at,'' said Randall
Eliason, the former chief of the public corruption section at the
U.S. Attorney's office in Washington. ``You don't compel
reporters to testify or jail reporters unless you have a pretty
good reason.''
Tatel's Opinion
That ``pretty good reason'' was highlighted by U.S. Appellate
Judge David Tatel in his Feb. 15 opinion concurring that Miller
and Cooper must testify in the Plame case.
Tatel noted that the vast majority of the states, as well as
the Justice Department, ``would require us to protect reporters'
sources as a matter of federal common law were the leak at issue
either less harmful or more newsworthy.''
However, he added, ``just as attorney-client communications
made for the purpose of getting advice for the commission of a
fraud or crime serve no public interest and receive no privilege,
neither should courts protect sources whose leaks harm national
security while providing minimal benefit to public debate.''
-- With reporting by Laurie Asseo in Washington. Editor:
Fireman, Kraus
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