Rove Testifies in CIA Leak Investigation

Karl Rove, President Bush's chief political adviser, testified yesterday before a federal grand jury investigating whether administration officials last year illegally disclosed the identity of covert CIA employee Valerie Plame. Rove's attorney, Robert Luskin, said Rove testified for about two hours and had "made himself available previously" in the investigation. Luskin said special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald has assured Rove that he is not a target of the probe. Fitzgerald has been trying to determine whether a government employee violated the law by disclosing Plame's name to the news media. Plame's husband, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, a critic of the Bush administration, was sent by the CIA in 2002 to investigate claims that Iraq had sought to purchase uranium in the African nation of Niger, and he reported that he found no proof. Syndicated columnist Robert D. Novak reported on July 14, 2003, that two administration officials told him that Plame had suggested Wilson for the Niger trip. Fitzgerald's 10-month investigation has recently focused on reporters. Three sources involved in the probe said yesterday that the prosecutor is struggling with what one called an "echo chamber" effect in seeking the information's origin. [more ] and  [more ]