Karl Rove: Outing Valerie Plame: Chain of Events

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The following is the chain of events regarding Karl Rove: Outing Valerie Plame.

  • See:
  • Also see:
  • "Plame leak timeline" in the dKosopedia.
  • "Follow the Time-Line" posted by Jonathan Weiler at The Gadflyer, July 14, 2005: "As the Republican lie machine continues its desperate attempts to distract attention from the obvious mendacity of Rovegate, it's important to keep track of the timeline of events here," Weiler commented.

"The question of whether to investigate who in the Bush administration blew Plame's cover surfaced Aug. 21 at a forum about intelligence failures on Iraq held by Rep. Jay Inslee, a fervently anti-war Democrat. Wilson, who was present, had this to say:
"'It's of keen interest to me to see whether or not we can get Karl Rove frog-marched out of the White House in handcuffs. And trust me, when I use that name, I measure my words.'
"This appeared to be an unsubtle hint that Wilson knew one of the leakers to be Rove."
"President George Bush's closest political adviser, Karl Rove, was yesterday at the centre of a criminal investigation into allegations that he leaked the name of a CIA agent in an attempt to suppress criticism of the administration's Iraq policy, in what is fast becoming the administration's worst scandal since coming to office."
"Rove pushed the leak for days after Novak first wrote about Plame. It should also be pointed out that Karl Rove was FIRED by Bush I in the early 1990s for leaking damaging information about someone else to a reporter. And guess who that reporter was? His good buddy Bob Novak." [1]
Rove "adamantly insisted ... that he was not the administration official who leaked the information that Plame was a covert CIA operative to conservative columnist Robert Novak last July. Rather, Rove insisted, he had only circulated information about Plame after it had appeared in Novak's column. He also told the FBI, the same sources said, that circulating the information was a legitimate means to counter what he claimed was politically motivated criticism of the Bush administration by Plame's husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson." [2]
"'Well, I'll repeat what I said to ABC News when this whole thing broke some number of months ago. I didn't know her name and didn't leak her name.'"
"Karl Rove, one of President Bush’s top White House aides, testified this morning before a federal grand jury investigating the leak of a CIA operative's name by administration sources. Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald questioned Rove about his contacts with journalists in what a source familiar with Rove's situation said was his third appearance before the grand jury. 'My client appeared voluntarily before the grand jury and has cooperated with the investigation since it began,' said Rove's attorney Robert Luskin. 'He has been assured in writing as recently as this week that he is not a target of the investigation.'" [3]
MSNBC analyst Lawrence O'Donnell said that Matt Cooper's documents reveal that Karl Rove was the source of the leak in the Plame case: "Now that Time Inc. has turned over documents to federal court, presumably revealing who its reporter, Matt Cooper, identified as his source in the Valerie Plame/CIA case, speculation runs rampant on the name of that source, and what might happen to him or her. Tonight, on the syndicated McLaughlin Group political talk show, Lawrence O'Donnell, senior MSNBC political analyst, claimed to know that name--and it is, according to him, top White House mastermind Karl Rove." [4] The article includes a transcript of O'Donnell's remarks.
"According to the players, the key to whether this story has real legs -- and whether it will spell the end of Rove -- is determining intent. And a key to that is whether there was a meeting at the White House where Rove and Scooter Libby discussed what to do with the information they had gotten from the State Department about Valerie Plame being Joe Wilson’s wife, and her involvement in his being sent on the Niger/yellowcake mission. If it can be proven that such a meeting occurred, then Rove will be in deep trouble -- especially if it is established that Rove made three phone calls leaking the info about Plame and her CIA gig… one to Matt Cooper, one to Walter Pincus, and one to Robert Novak." [5]

Also see "CIA Leak Quotes" posted by the Associated Press, July 11, 2005.

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