Rove to testify again in grand jury probe
WASHINGTON – White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove will again testify to a grand jury that is in the final stages of investigating whether senior Bush administration officials illegally leaked the identity of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame to the media more than two years ago, a source close to Rove said Thursday.
Special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald contacted Rove last week to seek his fourth appearance before the grand jury – but warned Rove’s lawyer that he could not guarantee Rove would not be indicted, according to the source. Rove could appear as early as today.
Fitzgerald’s request – which comes just weeks before the grand jury term is set to expire on Oct. 28 – suggests that new information has come to light in other witness testimony, or other questions remain that Rove needs to address, according to lawyers who have been involved in the case.
Rove’s lawyer, Robert Luskin, said Rove has not been notified that he is a target of the investigation, and does not fear testifying despite Fitzgerald’s warning. Luskin declined to say whether he knows the topics Fitzgerald wants to question Rove about.
A source close to Rove said Bush’s chief political adviser and his legal team are now genuinely concerned he could face charges. But, the source said, his lawyers are hoping that Fitzgerald’s warning of the chance of indictment is simply the move of a conservative, by-the-book prosecutor wrapping up a high-profile investigation. Prosecutorial guidelines require prosecutors to warn witnesses before they appear before a grand jury if there is a chance they could face criminal charges.
For the past 22 months, Fitzgerald has been investigating whether any Bush administration officials knowingly revealed Plame’s identity in July 2003 as retaliation for public criticism by her husband, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, of the government’s case for war in Iraq.
On July 6, Wilson contended in an opinion piece that administration claims that Iraq was trying to obtain nuclear materials in Niger were false. Wilson had been sent to the African nation by the CIA to investigate the claims. Eight days later, on July 14, Plame’s name and CIA employment appeared in a syndicated column by Robert Novak.
Rove has testified that he talked with two reporters about Plame in that time period, but only referred to her as Wilson’s wife and never supplied information about her status as an undercover CIA operative. Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, also testified that he discussed Plame with at least two reporters but said that he, too, never mentioned her name or her covert status, according to lawyers in the case.