Karl Rove, the closest political advisor to President Bush, has agreed to testify to the special prosecutor with regard to the leak of the identity of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame.
Despite Rove's offer to testify, Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald said there was no guarantee Rove would not be indicted in the case According to a report published in by the Associated Press. Rove was named as the source of 'Time' magazine reporter Matthew Cooper, who testified earlier in the investigation.
Rove's attorney, Robert Luskin, said that Rove has not been told he is a target of the investigation either. 'I can say categorically that Karl has not received a target letter from the special counsel. The special counsel has confirmed that he has not made any charging decisions in respect to Karl,' Luskin said.
Luskin also added that his client 'continues to be cooperative voluntarily' with the special prosecutor's office.
Fitzgerald has been investigating the leak by somebody in the Bush administration that led directly to the outing of Valerie Plame. Thus far, suspicion has centered on Rove and Vice President Cheney's chief of staff 'Scooter' Libby.
High ranking members of the Bush administration may have had political motives to 'out' Plame after he husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, wrote a damaging op-ed piece in the 'New York Times' about the administration’s manipulation and misuse of intelligence information about Saddam Hussein's alleged attempts to obtain yellowcake uranium from Niger. The report turned out to be false although the president used it as evidence in his state of the union address as a reason the United States had to invade Iraq.
Rove is the president's closest political advisor and has worked with him since 1978. He is known as a merciless political spin artist who helped orchestrate both of Mr. Bush's campaigns for president.
