Breaking Story! Its Rove!

This is a breaking story Laurence O'donnel adds
from his comments from the Maclaughlin Report this
is an exclusive only from this blog and post! You
will not get this from Drudge or Michelle Malkin
or even Fox!

07.02.2005 Lawrence O'Donnell

It's Rove...
I revealed in yesterday's taping of the McLaughlin Group that Time magazine's emails will reveal that Karl Rove was Matt Cooper's source. I have known this for months but didn't want to say it at a time that would risk me getting dragged into the grand jury.

McLaughlin is seen in some markets on Friday night, so some websites have picked it up, including Drudge, but I don't expect it to have much impact because McLaughlin is not considered a news show and it will be pre-empted in the big markets on Sunday because of tennis.

Since I revealed the big scoop, I have had it reconfirmed by yet another highly authoritative source. Too many people know this. It should break wide open this week. I know Newsweek is working on an 'It's Rove!' story and will probably break it tomorrow.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/theblog/archive/lawrence-odonnell/its-rove_3556.html#comments

 

Got this off the same blogger site to bring
some perspective to this ane also to be fair.


It seems pretty clear that O'Donnell received his info from Newsweek from the people working on the Newsweek article for the July 11 issue.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8445696/site/newsweek/

But this article doesn't confirm that Rove was the leaker--it's clear from it that Newsweek doesn't know anything for sure (why would Time tell Newsweek something its reporter was willing to be jailed over?). O'Donnell seems to be making a big jump from the limited facts of this article that Rove is the one who leaked it, but that is a big jump.

All the article says is that: (1) Rove and Cooper communicated; (2) They communicated before the Novak column (but before Novak told Rove he knew? That's left unsaid); (3) No one knows what they communicated about; (4) Rove's lawyer says he didn't knowingly release any classified material and didn't say that Plame worked for the CIA (which, since he knows that the documents are coming out this week, would be a stupid thing to lie about); (5) Rove has testified and answered every question put to him; (6) some laywers of some Republicans involved in the case say, secondhand, that people in the White House are "concerned".

It seems that O'Donnell and the Huffington Post are jumping to partisan conclusions that are unwarranted by the facts that we know.

The unanswered question: Rove signed a waiver allowing reporters to testify concerning their involvement with him--why would someone go to jail for refusing to testify about someone who had signed a waiver allowing them to testify about them?


Posted by: Jeffrey Jackson at July 2, 2005 07:11 PM

 

You can attack O'donnel and that is fine but he
is a consistently good journalist...I guess you
have never lost in once KenH on the job..I was
indignant as well at the junk boat judas's turning on a war hero.

Anyway back to the topic more news from newsweek,
Michael Isiakoff , editor and publisher

O'Donnel is sticking his neck our but he clarified
and even added to his story with and additional source.

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000972841
This afternoon, Newsweek's Michael Isikoff confirmed that Cooper did indeed talk to Rove for his story, but Rove's lawyer denied he was the key leaker in the case.

notice the admission by the lawyer Rove as leaker.


So I already see the spin..rove was not the key
leaker...well we shall see where this treason
leads.

Here is the text of what O'Donnell said on Friday:

"What we're going to go to now in the next stage, when Matt Cooper's e-mails, within Time Magazine, are handed over to the grand jury--the ultimate revelation, probably within the week of who his source is.

"I know I'm going to get pulled into the grand jury for saying this but the source of...for Matt Cooper was Karl Rove, and that will be revealed in this document dump that Time magazine's going to do with the grand jury."

Other McLaughlin Group panelists then joined in discussing whether, if true, this would suggest a perjury rap for Rove, if he told the grand jury he did not leak to Cooper.

Besides his career at a TV journalist, O'Donnell has served as a producer and writer for the series "The West Wing."

According to published reports, Patrick Fitzgerald, the special prosecutor in the case, has interviewed President Bush and Vice President Cheney and called Karl Rove, among others, to testify before the grand jury.

"The breadth of Fitzgerald's inquiry has led to speculation that it has evolved into an investigation of a conspiracy to leak Plame's identity," the Chicago Tribune observed on Friday, "or of an attempt to cover up White House involvement in the leak

 

Oh what a tangled web it weaves

Lawyer for Rove contacts Post and LA Times

http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000972855

Rove talked to Cooper days before Novak outed
Valerie Plame

MSNBC political analyst Lawrence O'Donnell and Newsweek's Michael Isikoff had revealed, in recent hours, that Rove's name turned up in the notes Time Inc. turned over to a federal judge on Friday.

"Cooper has said that more than one confidential source is identified in his e-mails and the notes of interviews he conducted in July 2003," the Post reported.

Rove answered questions under oath before a grand jury on Oct. 15. According to Luskin, the prosecutor said he believes Rove was candid about his contact with reporters. "I've been assured by the prosecutor they have no reason to doubt the honesty of anything he's said," Luskin said.

Richard B. Schmitt in the Los Angeles Times reported tonight; "In confirming the conversation between Rove and Cooper, Rove attorney Robert Luskin stressed that the presidential adviser did not reveal any secrets. But the disclosure raised new questions about Rove and the precise role of the White House in the apparent national security breach as Cooper and another reporter, Judith Miller of the New York Times, faced imminent jail terms."

 

07.03.2005 Lawrence O'Donnell

Update on Rove
On Friday, I broke the story that the e-mails that Time turned over to the prosecutor that day reveal that Karl Rove is the source Matt Cooper is protecting. That provoked Rove’s lawyer, Robert Luskin, to interrupt his holiday weekend to do a little defense work with Newsweek and the Los Angeles Times. On Saturday, Luskin decided to reveal that Rove did have at least one conversation with Cooper, but Luskin told the Times he would not “characterize the substance of the conversation.”

Luskin claimed that the prosecutor “asked us not to talk about what Karl has had to say.” This is highly unlikely. Prosecutors have absolutely no control over what witnesses say when they leave the grand jury room. Rove can tell us word-for-word what he said to the grand jury and would if he thought it would help him. And notice that Luskin just did reveal part of Rove’s grand jury testimony, the fact that he had a conversation with Cooper. Rove would not let me get one day of traction on this story if he could stop me. If what I have reported is not true, if Karl Rove is not Matt Cooper’s source, Rove could prove that instantly by telling us what he told the grand jury. Nothing prevents him from doing that, except a good lawyer who is trying to keep him out of jail.

 

Sorry forgot the Link via Drudge to the Huffington
Post.

http://www.drudgereport.com/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/theblog/archive/lawrence-odonnell/update-on-rove_3584.html#comments