http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000975776
Mystery of Karl Rove/Matt Cooper Connection Deepens
By E&P Staff
July 08, 2005
NEW YORK
The mystery deepened today over top White House aide Karl Rove's
involvement in the Plame case and how strongly special prosecutor
Patrick Fitzgerald is interested in that.
The Washington Post's Dan Balz reports today that Fitzgerald "still
appears to want more answers about Rove's role" and apparently is
"focused on" his conversations with Time magazine's Matt Cooper, who
has now agreed to testify in the matter.
Yesterday The New York Times reported that Cooper’s dramatic reprieve
from jail, after his unnamed sourced freed him from their
confidentiality agreement, came after he got a personal okay from
Rove.
At the same time, The Post reported that Rove's attorney, Robert
Luskin, denied that Rove had called him.
"Yesterday, however," Balz reports, "Luskin declined to comment on a
New York Times report that the release came as a result of
negotiations involving Rove's and Cooper's attorneys, nor would he
speculate that Cooper was released from his pledge in some other
fashion than a direct conversation with Rove. 'I'm not going to
comment any further,' Luskin said."
Balz also noted that Luskin's previous confirmation that Rove had
spoken to Cooper two years ago "appeared at odds with previous White
House statements. In retrospect, however, these statements -- which
some interpreted as emphatic denials -- were in fact carefully
worded."
Rove told MSNBC's Chris Matthews that Valerie Plame, CIA operative and
wife of former ambassador Joseph Wilson, was "fair game," according to
an October 2003 report in Newsweek.
"At a minimum Fitzgerald could turn up embarrassing information that
may yet become public about how the Bush White House operates," Balz
writes today.
"Although the president has encouraged full cooperation with the
special prosecutor," he adds, "administration officials have not
appeared eager to explain fully their roles in the Wilson matter."
_____________________________________________________________
The Turd Blossom Gift Shop
http://www.cafepress.com/thewhitehouse/438933
Harry
.
|
