[Mb-civic] Time Reporter Called a Key to Rove's Defense In Leak Probe - Washington Post

[William Swiggard]

Time Reporter Called a Key to Rove's Defense In Leak Probe

By Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 29, 2005; A01

The reporter for Time magazine who recently agreed to testify in the CIA 
leak case is central to White House senior adviser Karl Rove's effort to 
fend off an indictment in the two-year-old investigation, according to 
two people familiar with the situation.

Viveca Novak, who has written intermittently about the leak case for 
Time, has been asked to provide sworn testimony to Special Counsel 
Patrick J. Fitzgerald in the next few weeks after Rove attorney Robert 
Luskin told Fitzgerald about a conversation he had with her, the two 
sources said.

It's not clear why Luskin believes Novak's deposition could help Rove, 
President Bush's deputy chief of staff, who remains under investigation 
into whether he provided false statements in the case. But a person 
familiar with the matter said Luskin cited his conversations with Novak 
in persuading Fitzgerald not to indict Rove in late October, when the 
prosecutor brought perjury and obstruction-of-justice charges against 
Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.

"This is what caused [Fitzgerald] to hold off on charging" Rove, the 
source said. But another person familiar with the conversations said 
they did not appear to significantly alter the case.

Luskin presented evidence, including details of his own conversations 
with Novak, to Fitzgerald at a secret meeting at a downtown law office 
shortly before Libby was indicted on Oct. 28, according to a source 
familiar with the case.

It could not be learned what Luskin and Novak, who are friends, 
discussed that could help prove Rove did nothing illegal in the leaking 
of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity to reporters and the 
subsequent investigation of it.

Novak is not related to Robert D. Novak, the columnist who first 
disclosed Plame's identity in July 2003. Viveca Novak is expected to 
write a firsthand account after she is deposed.

The disclosure of Novak's impending testimony is the latest indication 
that Fitzgerald is still considering charges against Rove and that the 
investigation of Bush's top aide continues, even as the prosecutor 
prepares for Libby's trial. It also shows that Rove, who, like Libby, 
was dragged into the case for talking to reporters, is now hoping that a 
reporter will help pull him out.

Washington Post Assistant Managing Editor Bob Woodward told Fitzgerald 
earlier this month that he had discussed Plame with a senior 
administration official -- and that the official was someone other than 
Libby -- before Libby's first conversation with another reporter about 
Plame. The Libby legal team cheered Woodward's testimony, calling it "a 
bombshell" and contending that it undercut Fitzgerald's case that Libby 
was the first official known to have talked about Plame and her CIA 
status with a reporter.

Libby's legal team plans to rely on testimony from Woodward and other 
reporters to show that the former Cheney aide is not guilty of lying, 
providing misleading statements and obstructing justice in the course of 
the investigation, a person familiar with the legal strategy said.

Luskin, Viveca Novak and Fitzgerald spokesman Randall Samborn declined 
to comment. The two sources, both of whom are familiar with the 
Luskin-Novak conversations, spoke on the condition of anonymity because 
the prosecutor has warned everyone involved in the case not to discuss 
it publicly.

Fitzgerald has spent the past two years investigating whether any Bush 
administration officials disclosed Plame's name and employment at the 
CIA as part of an effort to discredit allegations by her husband, former 
diplomat Joseph C. Wilson IV, that President Bush had twisted 
intelligence to justify the Iraq war. Fitzgerald has not charged anyone 
with the crime he originally set out to prove: the illegal disclosure of 
a covert CIA operative's identity. Instead, he has focused on alleged 
wrongdoing in the course of the investigation.

Fitzgerald recently disclosed that he plans to present new evidence to a 
second grand jury. People close to the case said the first area 
Fitzgerald wants to address is Woodward's testimony and his source, who 
has not been publicly identified.

Woodward's source could face legal troubles because the source testified 
earlier in the case and apparently did not mention a conversation with 
Woodward about Plame, according to lawyers in the case. If the source 
provided inaccurate or incomplete information, Fitzgerald could seek to 
bring charges, they said.

Rove's fate remains uncertain. He has testified that he talked to 
columnist Robert D. Novak and Time magazine's Matthew Cooper about 
Plame's CIA employment. But in his initial conversations with federal 
investigators and testimony, Rove did not mention the conversation with 
Cooper, later telling the grand jury he forgot about it and did not 
intend to mislead anyone, according to lawyers in the case. Luskin has 
worked behind the scenes to convince Fitzgerald that Rove is guilty of 
nothing more than a faulty memory.

Time has not disclosed what information Viveca Novak might have that is 
relevant to the case and Rove's defense. In a brief article Sunday, the 
magazine reported that she has been asked to discuss conversations with 
Luskin starting in May 2004, when she first began to report on the leak 
case.

Time has not objected to Fitzgerald's questioning Novak. The magazine 
waged a lengthy legal battle to keep Fitzgerald's grand jury from 
questioning Cooper before acquiescing earlier this year. Unlike Cooper, 
Viveca Novak is not seeking to protect a confidential source and was not 
subpoenaed to testify.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/28/AR2005112801683.html?referrer=email
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