July 12, 2006
Novak: Rove Was a Source in Outing Plame
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 2:29 a.m. ET
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Columnist Robert Novak said publicly for the first
time Tuesday that White House political adviser Karl Rove was a source
for his story outing the identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame.
In a column, Novak also says his recollection of his conversation with
Rove differs from what the Rove camp has said.
''I have revealed Rove's name because his attorney has divulged the
substance of our conversation, though in a form different from my
recollection,'' Novak wrote. Novak did not elaborate.
A spokesman for Rove's legal team, Mark Corallo, said that Rove did
not even know Plame's name at the time he spoke with Novak, that the
columnist called Rove, not the other way around, and that Rove simply
said he had heard the same information that Novak passed along to him
regarding Plame.
''There was not much of a difference'' between the recollections of
Rove and Novak, said Corallo.
Novak said he is talking now because Special Counsel Patrick
Fitzgerald told the columnist's lawyer that after 2 1/2 years his
investigation of the CIA leak case concerning matters directly
relating to Novak has been concluded.
Triggering the criminal investigation, Novak revealed Plame's CIA
employment on July 14, 2003, eight days after her husband, White House
critic and former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson, accused the
administration of manipulating prewar intelligence to exaggerate the
Iraqi threat from weapons of mass destruction.
Novak's secret cooperation with prosecutors while maintaining a public
silence about his role kept him out of legal danger and had the effect
of providing protection for the Bush White House during the 2004
presidential campaign.
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