Rove and (Ms.) Novak

The link between Karl Rove and Ms. Novak, no relation, (the second Time reporter to testify before Fitzgerald's grand jury is becoming clearer. Apparently, Ms. Novak had communicated with Robert Luskin, Rove's lawyer, about Rove's discussions of Valerie Wilson with Matt Cooper, contrary to what he had told the grand jury. This might be what caused Luskin to have several meetings with Fitzgerald in the days leading up to Scooter Libby's indictment and could have been responsible for Rove's omission (except for references to him as "Official A") from the indictment. Rove's lawyers apparently feel that this new bit of information could shed some doubt as to whether he intentionally misled investigators about his involvement in sharing Mrs. Wilson's identity as a covert CIA operative to reporters. However, it could be that Rove had conveniently forgotten about sharing Valerie Wilson's identity and used Ms. Novak as a lever on which to propogate his explanation. This seems much more aligned with Rove's general M.O. than would have not realized his emails and phone calls with Cooper and Robert Novak.