WASHINGTON, June 13 (Xinhua) -- White House senior adviser Karl Rove had
been assured by Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald that he would not be charged
in the CIA leak case, CNN Television reported on Tuesday.
"We believe that the special counsel's decision should put an end to the
baseless speculation about Mr. Rove's conduct," Robert Luskin, Rove's lawyer,
was quoted as saying.
He also said Rove would not make any further public statements on the case.
Rove, the top political advisor to President George W Bush, was told that he
was not a target of the investigation of the leak case, which focused on how
covert CIA operative Valerie Plame's name had been disclosed to the media, said
Luskin, on April 26, after Rove's latest appearance before a grand jury.
Plame's CIA identity was publicly disclosed soon after her husband, former
U.S. diplomat Joe Wilson, accused the Bush administration of twisting prewar
intelligence to exaggerate Iraq's weapons of mass destruction threat in an
article published in The New York Times in July 2003.
In the article, Wilson said he had been sent by the CIA to Africa in 2003
to check out intelligence that Iraq had an agreement to acquire uranium
yellowcake from Niger. He found out that there was no such arrangement.
He also indicated that Bush's claim on Iraq's uranium deal in his State of
the Union address in January 2003 was based on fake intelligence.
Since Plame's CIA identity was leaked, Wilson has been alleging that the
Bush administration leaked his wife's identity in retaliation for his article.
Two and a half years ago, the U.S. Justice Department assigned Special Counsel
Patrick Fitzgerald to launch an investigation into the leak case, leading
to the questioning of a number of White House aides and reporters.
Last October, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, then Vice President Cheney's chief
of staff, was charged with lying to investigators and a grand jury about his
knowledge of Plame.
Rove has made five appearances before a grand jury for explaining his
connection to the case.
His exemption from being charged leaves Libby the only one standing trial
in the case. Enditem
