News Intelligence Analysis
From the New York Times
December 12, 2005
Reporter Recounts Talk About
Karl Rove and Leak Case
By DAVID JOHNSTON
WASHINGTON, Dec. 11 - A reporter for Time magazine said Sunday
that a lawyer for Karl Rove, the senior White House adviser,
was surprised when she suggested to him in the first half of
2004 that Mr. Rove had probably been a source for the magazine's
July 2003 article that discussed the C.I.A. officer at the heart
of the leak case.
The reporter, Viveca Novak, wrote in a first-person article published on the magazine's Web site that she met with Robert D. Luskin, a lawyer for Mr. Rove, on three occasions in early 2004. She said it was likely in one of these meetings that she hinted to Mr. Luskin that Mr. Rove had discussed the C.I.A. officer with a Time colleague, Matthew Cooper.
Ms. Novak's conversation with Mr. Luskin has been under scrutiny by the special counsel in the leak case, Patrick J. Fitzgerald. In her article, Ms. Novak wrote that Mr. Fitzgerald sought to question her about the matter after Mr. Luskin told him of their conversation about Mr. Rove, in the belief that the information would help his client.
Ms. Novak said that before she spoke with Mr. Fitzgerald on Nov. 10, a discussion in which she was not under oath, she hired a lawyer, Hank Schuelke. "I didn't tell anyone at Time," she wrote. "Unrealistically, I hoped this would turn out to be an insignificant twist in the investigation and also figured that if people at Time knew about it, it would be difficult to contain the information, and reporters would pounce on it - as I would have."
After her conversation with Mr. Fitzgerald, Ms. Novak continued to do reporting on the leak case, including on the involvement of Bob Woodward, a reporter and editor at The Washington Post. She told her editors about her conversations with Mr. Fitzgerald on Nov. 20, after he had told her he wanted her to testify under oath.
Ms. Novak's article was accompanied by an editor's note that said she had taken a leave of absence. Jim Kelly, Time's managing editor, said in an interview on Sunday: "I'm taking this seriously. I'm upset and she's upset." He said her article "was full of regret about what happened."
Mr. Kelly suggested that there were several issues of concern to editors, among them her failure to alert editors in a timely way about her conversation with Mr. Luskin and her dealings with the prosecutor. Mr. Kelly said he would meet with Ms. Novak early next year to decide if further steps were warranted.
Ms. Novak's testimony appeared to bring Mr. Fitzgerald close to an end point in his deliberations about whether to charge Mr. Rove. Mr. Fitzgerald met for the first time with a new grand jury last week, although it is not known what evidence, if any, he presented to the panel.
Mr. Rove is the only person known to remain under scrutiny in the leak case. Mr. Luskin has waged a vigorous behind-the-scenes effort to save Mr. Rove from criminal charges. On Sunday, Mr. Luskin would not discuss the case or his conversations with Ms. Novak.
Ms. Novak said she was questioned under oath last week about her conversations with Mr. Luskin and said she felt free to cooperate with the prosecutor because Mr. Luskin wanted her to testify. In her article, Ms. Novak said she was writing about her conversation with Mr. Luskin, over his objection, because he had "unilaterally" gone to the prosecutor to disclose it.
At the time of her 2004 conversation with Mr. Luskin, Ms. Novak wrote, he seemed surprised when she suggested to him that Mr. Cooper had spoken with Mr. Rove.
In her article, she wrote: "I remember Luskin looking at me and saying something to the effect of 'Karl doesn't have a Cooper problem. He was not a source for Matt.'
"I responded instinctively," she recalled in the article, "thinking he was trying to spin me, and said something like, 'Are you sure about that? That's not what I hear around Time.' "
"He looked surprised and very serious," she wrote, recalling that Mr. Luskin said, "There's nothing in the phone logs." It was only later disclosed that Mr. Cooper's phone call on July 11, 2003, had been transferred to Mr. Rove via a White House switchboard, which could explain why there was no record of his call.
Ms. Novak wrote that the conversation with Mr. Luskin had occurred at one of three meetings anywhere from January 2004 to May 2004, although she believed that the conversation more likely took place in May.
After her exchange, Ms. Novak recalled, she felt uncomfortable thinking that she might have inadvertently disclosed information that should have been withheld from the lawyer.
"I was taken aback that he seemed so surprised," she wrote. "I had been pushing back against what I thought was his attempt to lead me astray. I hadn't believed that I was disclosing anything he didn't already know. Maybe this was a feint. Maybe his client was lying to him. But at any rate, I immediately felt uncomfortable. I hadn't intended to tip Luskin off to anything. I was supposed to be the information gatherer."
The prosecutor has focused for months on the accuracy of Mr. Rove's statements to the grand jury that he forgot about the conversation with Mr. Cooper until the summer or fall of 2004, when he found an internal White House e-mail message addressed to Stephen J. Hadley, then the deputy national security adviser, that confirmed it.
Ms. Novak is not related to Robert D. Novak, the columnist who first disclosed the name of the Central Intelligence Agency officer in a column on July 14, 2003. Mr. Cooper's article, which relied on Mr. Rove as a source, was published several days later and also identified the officer, Valerie Wilson, by her maiden name, Valerie Plame.
Mr. Fitzgerald has been investigating whether there was a deliberate effort to disclose details about Ms. Wilson and her employment at the C.I.A. as part of an attempt to distance the administration from Ms. Wilson's husband, Joseph C. Wilson IV, a former ambassador who had complained about what he said was the government's misuse of intelligence about Iraq.
So far, Mr. Fitzgerald has brought one indictment, against I. Lewis Libby Jr., Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff. Mr. Libby was indicted Oct. 28 on five counts of obstruction of justice and perjury, and immediately resigned. He has pleaded not guilty.
Even if Mr. Fitzgerald concludes his inquiry involving Mr. Rove, it may not end the criminal investigation. Mr. Woodward of The Washington Post disclosed last month that a government official told him about Ms. Wilson in mid-June 2003, which would make Mr. Woodward the first reporter known to be told about her.
Mr. Woodward wrote that he testified under oath in a deposition to Mr. Fitzgerald after his source, whom he refused to identify, went to the prosecutor to disclose the conversation. It is not known what action, if any, Mr. Fitzgerald intends to take in the matter.
Copyright 2005The New York Times Company
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