By Holly Yeager in Washington
Published: July 10 2005 23:17 | Last updated: July 10 2005 23:17
Karl Rove, President George W. Bush's top political adviser, was the secret source who gave a Time magazine reporter permission to testify last week, thus avoiding jail for contempt of court, Newsweek reported on Sunday.
Mr Rove has been the subject of growing speculation as two journalists faced prison for failing to reveal their sources to a federal prosecutor investigating the leak of the identity of Valerie Plame, an undercover CIA officer.
Last week Judith Miller of the New York Times was jailed after she refused to testify before a grand jury about her source. Matt Cooper, of Time magazine, had expected to keep his source a secret as well. But in dramatic fashion, just as he was about to persist in maintaining his silence, he said he received permission from his source to testify in court.
Mr Cooper has refused to identify his source publicly. But in this week's edition Newsweek said Mr Rove's attorney had confirmed that Mr Rove had discussed Joseph Wilson, a former ambassador who is married to Ms Plame, with Mr Cooper and that he gave Mr Cooper permission to testify.
It is illegal to reveal knowingly the identity of an undercover officer, and the prosecutor has been searching for the source of the leak who revealed Ms Plame's identity, which was first reported by Robert Novak, a columnist.
Mr Rove has insisted he did not leak Ms Plame's name, and e-mail accounts included in the Newsweek story only make clear that he talked to Mr Cooper about Mr Wilson's wife, without revealing her name.
“Nothing in the Cooper e-mail suggests that Rove used Plame's name or knew she was a covert operative,” according to Newsweek. “Nonetheless, it is significant that Rove was speaking to Cooper before Novak's column appeared; in other words, before Plame's identity had been published.”
