Lawyers Secured Rove's Waiver

[steve2470]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/15/AR2005071502085.html


Executives Hear Reporters' Anger

By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, July 16, 2005; Page A06

Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper, facing a jail term in the Valerie Plame leak investigation, never asked White House political adviser Karl Rove to release him from a pledge of confidentiality because Cooper's attorney believed that any conversation between the two men could be construed as obstruction of justice.

"I forbid Matt to call him," Richard Sauber said yesterday. "I cringed at the idea. These two witnesses would have to explain their discussion before the grand jury."

(on edit: deleted caption for photo)

Cooper's last-minute avoidance of imprisonment, on the day that New York Times reporter Judith Miller was taken into custody, capped an intense period of backstage maneuvering that turned as much on coincidence as on a prominent journalist and his high-level informant struggling through intermediaries to protect their reputations.

Cooper testified Wednesday after Sauber worked out a waiver of confidentiality with Rove's attorney in the case, which began with columnist Robert D. Novak revealing in July 2003 that Plame, the wife of an administration critic, was a covert CIA operative. Cooper's story was posted online days later.

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[Media_Lies_Daily]

1. Did you notice this paragraph?..........

"Cooper testified last year about his conversations with I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, under what he considered a personal waiver from Libby. But Cooper faced contempt again when Fitzgerald demanded to know who his other source was, and Sauber said they were 'unwilling' to contact Rove 'based on a fishing expedition.'"

Two sources....two Chiefs-of-Staff. Both part of the White House Iraq Group (WHIG) along with Hughes, Rice and others....all reporting to Cheney and Bush.

It's starting to get very interesting.

[dchill]

2. VERY interesting ...

n/t