WASHINGTON — Presidential advisor Karl Rove has agreed to testify a fourth time before a federal grand jury wrapping up its investigation into the leak of a covert CIA agent's identity -- further rattling some Republicans already on edge about the implications of the long-running inquiry.
Rove's attorney, Robert Luskin, said Thursday that the special prosecutor in the case had called last week asking for Rove's additional cooperation and told him that he had "made no decision on whether to charge Karl."
Rove's testimony could come as soon as today. The request for Rove to testify came after New York Times reporter Judith Miller, who was jailed 85 days for refusing to cooperate, was released last week and testified in the case.
Luskin said Rove had not received a "target letter" -- a notice customarily sent to a grand jury witness about to be indicted. He portrayed Rove's additional trip to the grand jury as another sign of extraordinary cooperation from his client and the White House.
Luskin declined to speculate on whether the request from the federal prosecutor, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, increased Rove's legal vulnerability in the case.
The request for additional testimony from Rove, President Bush's chief political advisor, returns public attention to the role that he and other top White House officials played in discussing CIA officer Valerie Plame with reporters. It is a felony to knowingly leak the name of a covert agent, and it is that possible violation that inspired the federal probe.
Since then, however, Fitzgerald has interviewed dozens of Bush administration officials, and some familiar with the prosecutor's questions believe he is looking also at the possibility of obstruction of justice, perjury or conspiracy charges in the case.
The case is troublesome for the White House not only because of the possibility of indictments against top officials, but because it raises questions about the rationale the administration used in going to war with Iraq, and about the tactics it uses against political enemies.
Plame is married to former envoy Joseph C. Wilson IV, who wrote an op-ed article for the New York Times criticizing the administration's use of intelligence to justify the war in Iraq. On July 14, 2003, eight days after Wilson's article appeared, columnist Robert Novak identified Plame by name and occupation in a syndicated column that challenged Wilson's credibility.
