Karl Rove is back in front of the Grand Jury today. According to Rovian sources, Fitz wants to explore the Viveca Novak angle. Viveca Novak, who is not related to Robert Novak and who recently resigned from Time Magazine, introduced a curveball into Fitzgerald’s investigation last October.
[Karl Rove’s attorney, Robert] Luskin presented evidence, including details of his own conversations with Novak, to Fitzgerald at a secret meeting at a downtown law office shortly before Libby was indicted on Oct. 28, according to a source familiar with the case.
In that conversation, Luskin revealed that he had learned of Rove’s conversation with Time reporter, Matthew Cooper, when he was on a date sipping wine with Ms. Novak in early 2004.
Months before the conversation between Ms. Novak and Mr. Luskin, Mr. Rove testified to the grand jury that he had held a conversation about the C.I.A. officer with only one journalist, Robert D. Novak, the syndicated columnist. Mr. Rove did not disclose that he had also spoken to Mr. Cooper either in his first appearance before the grand jury, in February 2004, or in an earlier interview with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
But after his conversation with Ms. Novak, who is not related to the columnist, Mr. Luskin asked Mr. Rove to have the White House search for any record of a discussion between Mr. Rove and Mr. Cooper around the time that Ms. Wilson’s identity became public in July 2003.
The search turned up an e-mail message from Mr. Rove to another senior White House official, Stephen J. Hadley, then the deputy national security adviser, that recounted a conversation between Mr. Rove and Mr. Cooper. On Oct. 14, 2004, Mr. Rove went before the grand jury again to alter his earlier account, by saying he had also discussed the C.I.A. officer with Mr. Cooper.
That revelation temporarily kept Karl Rove out of jail. Ms. Novak and Mr. Luskin were hauled in front of the Grand Jury in early December. There they presumably explained that Luskin had told Novak that Karl Rove never talked to any reporters, and Novak responded by telling Luskin that the Time Magazine newsroom was buzzing with word that Rove had been a source for Matt Cooper on Valerie Plame. Alarmed, Luskin asked Rove about it, but Rove still didn’t remember talking to Cooper until a document search turned up an email to Stephen Hadley which “refreshed his memory”.
Using this version of events, Luskin explained that Rove had not lied to the FBI and the Grand Jury, but had merely forgotten. Now Fitz wants to hear Rove explain some more about how these events unfolded. At least, that is what sources close to Rove are saying. And they don’t seem overly concerned. From CNN
Before arriving at the courthouse, Rove went to the office of his attorney, Robert Luskin, on Wednesday, the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
…The sources said the goal of the session was, as one put it, “to clean up some things” in the hopes of reaching a resolution.
…The sources said they did not expect a statement of any kind from the prosecutor’s office Wednesday. But sources sympathetic to Rove suggested the goal was that his testimony would lead to a final deposition in the near future.
The real story is probably more ominous. It’s true that Rove turned over the Hadley email and volunteered to correct his GJ testimony. But, it’s not clear why that email was not turned over earlier. Rove’s recent demotion may be another sign that Rove’s story isn’t holding up. As Martin Schram speculates:
Now put yourself in the boots of the president. You are enduring bottom-dwelling poll numbers and unending bad news from Baghdad and beyond. Do you really want to risk one more potentially shattering development? Do you want to see headlines everywhere that say the beleaguered Bush White House was suddenly shattered by the indictment of its chief overseer of all policies, foreign and domestic? Do you want to endure a tsunami of chattering pundits cascading doom all over the nonstop TV news?
No way.
But that is precisely what I want. And the demotion isn’t going to mean a thing.