<snip>
Mr. Rove hasn't denied speaking to Mr. Cooper but has said all along that he never named Ms. Plame, who is Mr. Wilson's wife. If he did -- before Mr. Novak's article appeared and her name became public -- he could be in violation of a 1982 law prohibiting the leaking of CIA agents' names. It isn't clear whether Mr. Rove mentioned Ms. Plame by name to Mr. Cooper or even knew she was undercover, which special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald would need to know to prove Mr. Rove violated the law, known as the Intelligence Identities Protection Act.
<snip>
(T)he disclosure that Mr. Bush's top political strategist discussed the CIA employment of Mr. Wilson's wife amounts to a political embarrassment for Mr. Rove and the White House. A presidential spokesman had previously given what appeared to be an unequivocal public assurance that Mr. Rove hadn't been involved in the disclosure of Ms. Plame as a CIA operative. Discovery that earlier denials may have been carefully parsed
would represent another blow to the administration's credibility, compounding damage from the underlying issue that initially brought Mr. Wilson into the spotlight.
<snip>
Mr. Rove's attorney, Robert Luskin, last week denied that Mr. Rove had contacted Mr. Cooper last Wednesday, and said that when Mr. Rove spoke to Mr. Cooper two years ago, "Karl didn't disclose Valerie Plame's identification to anyone. That's not a technical statement. That's as practical and direct as I can make it." He also told The Wall Street Journal that Mr. Rove had never asked any reporter to treat him as a confidential source in the matter, "so if Matt Cooper is going to jail to protect a source, it's not Karl he's protecting."
<snip>
It is still unclear as to whether Mr. Rove is Mr. Fitzgerald's ultimate target. For instance, while Mr. Rove was a source for Mr. Cooper, it is unknown whether he spoke with Ms. Miller, who doesn't appear to have received a specific personal waiver from her source or sources. Ms. Miller never wrote about Ms. Plame's identity and the public remains in the dark about the source for the article that was the catalyst for the probe: the column by Mr. Novak. Mr. Rove's involvement may depend heavily on whether he spoke to Mr. Novak and if so, what he said. Mr. Novak has refused to say whether he has cooperated with Mr. Fitzgerald's probe.
http://online.wsj.com/public/article/0,,SB112104330395581808,00.html?mod=todays%5Ffree%5Ffeature (note: full story is available by WSJ subscription only)
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