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 ]
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