Ooops - I Erred On TIME (Reportedly)

Yesterday I pummeled TIME for failing to disclose the circumstances under which their reporter, Viveca Novak, was cooperating with Special Counsel Fitzgerald's probe into the Plame leak.  My gist - TIME did not seem to be respecting either source confidentiality, or its readers right to know, with their cryptic statement announcing that Viveca Novak would be testifying about her conversations with Karl Rove's attorney, Robert Luskin.

Well, tomorrow is another day, and today is yesterday's tomorrow - from the WaPo we learn that Viveca Novak has been asked to testify by Robert Luskin himself:

Viveca Novak, who has written intermittently about the leak case for Time, has been asked to provide sworn testimony to Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald in the next few weeks after Rove attorney Robert Luskin told Fitzgerald about a conversation he had with her, the two sources said.

...a person familiar with the matter said Luskin cited his conversations with Novak in persuading Fitzgerald not to indict Rove in late October, when the prosecutor brought perjury and obstruction-of-justice charges against Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.

"This is what caused [Fitzgerald] to hold off on charging" Rove, the source said. But another person familiar with the conversations said they did not appear to significantly alter the case.

Really?  That does fit with the bit of the TIME story that said "Fitzgerald is still trying to tie up the loose ends on Karl Rove's involvement in the case".  If Ms. Novak submitted some sort of a written statement in late October (or just said, "What Luskin said sounds about right" to Fitzgerald), I can see where, at some point, Fitzgerald would want to complete his records by getting her story under oath.

I do have a hard time believing Luskin would have said something deeply exculpatory to a reporter - if it is such good news for Karl, why might it not be a deliberately planted story? - but I am not the high priced prosecutorial talent here.

Anyway, this denouement suggests a bonus answer to a related puzzle - was it just a coincidence that Viveca Novak got the big interview with Bob Woodward?

Maybe not - Woodward is certainly free to hold out for a friendly interviewer, and he may have heard through the grapevine that Ms. Novak was also a skeptic about the Fitzgerald investigation.

MORE:  File this under "Yeah, that makes sense":

Luskin, Viveca Novak and Fitzgerald spokesman Randall Samborn declined to comment. The two sources, both of whom are familiar with the Luskin-Novak conversations, spoke on the condition of anonymity because the prosecutor has warned everyone involved in the case not to discuss it publicly.

Oh, sure - as if Fitzgerald urged Matt Cooper to splash his testimony about Rove and Libby all over the cover of TIME.  Why Viveca Novak is not getting a story out of this is baffling.

Comments

[Jim E.]

Cooper wrote his story AFTER he testified. I thought I read Viveca would do the same. She hasn't given her statement under oath yet.

[topsecretk9]

Jim E IS 100% correct. She said she was poised to give a full accounting after she testifies.

[R FLANAGAN]

What I want to know is who leaked V. Novak's
position to Woodward .

[topsecretk9]

100% may have been a little strong, here is WAPO

"Novak is not related to Robert D. Novak, the columnist who first disclosed Plame's identity in July 2003. Viveca Novak is expected to write a firsthand account after she is deposed."

So it is fair to say that she probably has not officially testified (today perhaps?) Anyhow...from her account I suspect we get 2 or 3 nuggets worth parsing but meaningless because they will be in such cryptic reporter parse speak it will get nowhere.

[topsecretk9]

CRAP...I left a tag open..please tag closers, please, please do your magic and close it?? Please, please, please!

[r flanagan]

Keeping score:the V.Novak interogation now get's removed from the prosecutorial abuse
column .

[topsecretk9]

Boris-
THANK YOU!

[topsecretk9]

Found a bug in Safari...once the open tag happens it will NOT correct the view when someone closes it. FYI.

[MayBee]

Maybe next time Time will do better than a cryptic announcement.
Just be glad you didn't start some frenzied letter-writing campaign.

[cathyf]

We have this whole narrative from Rove and Luskin, where in June, 2004, Luskin found the email that Rove wrote immediately after the welfare reform phone call with Cooper. That as soon as Luskin found the email Rove took it to the grand jury and testified that it appeared to be a contemporaneous documentation of the phone call which Rove says he does not remember.

As I speculated on the earlier thread, perhaps Viveca had something to do with sending Luskin searching Rove's computer for something to do with "Cooper" and that this is what turned up the email that the WH computer geeks had missed because it didn't have any of the subpeonaed keywords in it. Maybe she told him that Cooper was protecting Rove, and Luskin said "He is?!?" And Rove said, "He is?!?" If Fitzgerald had been looking at this as a case where they didn't come up with subpeonaed documents until 6 months after the subpeona, and Luskin's defense is something like, "we didn't know what we were looking for until Viveca gave us some info," then of course Fitzgerald would want testimony establishing that she gave them info and when.

Speculation, but it does seem to match the seemingly friendly tone of the Fitzgerald-Novak interaction. Someone else pointed out that Viveca is not testifying before the grand jury, but rather being deposed by the SP lawyers. That would certainly be consistent with tying up a loose end for something he's not indicting about.

cathy :-)

[topsecretk9]

Cathy F throws cold water on some and freezing on others, maybe.

I happen to think (disclosure: I KNOW I COULD BE VERY WRONG) that V-Nov said something and didn't know it, Luskin heard it and put it in his "wait and see" pocket, and when indictment talk started floating his way he pulled out his "wait and see" card and threw cold water on Fitz.

I only say and think this because of the way the admin. has been treating this investigation--i.e. POLAR treatment to the Starr investigation.

[topsecretk9]

forgot "opposite" with polar

[Jim E.]

If Viveca did give Luskin Cooper-related info, she must have been pretty dang obscure about it. As late as July 2005, Luskin was seriously claiming that Cooper's predicament (Cooper was about to enter jail) had nothing to do with having Rove as his source.

Will Luskin testify under oath, too? If not, why not?

[r flanagan]

Oh please. Let's not have lawyers
testifying. That way narcolepsy lies.

[topsecretk9]

Coopers only predicament only revolved around the nuanced reporter/comic's "confusion" about his waiver (which I really think had to do more about his NOTES than his actually having to testify)

[Rick Ballard]

TS,

If your NOTES said "remember to get Val's recipe for 'CIA Blueberry Trifle' for Maggie" right under "10:30 - Brunch - Corn & Wilsons" you'd be protective too.

[kim]

Yeah, I like tying up loose ends. That's what second grand juries are used for traditionally, right?
===============================================

[topsecretk9]

oh yeah

but you forgot "catch up with Krtst"o's" about Pinc"o's" Brunch"o" and see what they THINK about my conv"o"'...

[topsecretk9]

HEH

Pinc"o'

Oh WOW, that is an unfortunate inconvenience.

[kim]

Blackberry Delite.
=================

[kim]

In the Washupo.
========================

[Rick Ballard]

CIA Blueberrys trifling on Blackberrys

[kim]

Sounds Blue Toothsome.
========================

[Kate]

Kim - the second grand jury is for the Woodward evidence, not for Rove.

[topsecretk9]

Rick
Fri-July-10th
10am - naked magnificence time
11am - try and figure out a story that might impress my new editors
5pm- dinner with the Corny"ies" HEH Pincus's and a bunch others were their too!

9:45 - Corn and that guys were good
10am - Don't get all "WAR" out on Wilson-- yeah, yeah Rove.
3pm- Tenet talked- blah blah blah
7-pm- BOY was I funny tonight with...

Sat- July- 11th

3pm laid out in all my naked magnificence I took a call from Libby, isn't that funny and cool? anyway Libby said pretty much the same shit Rove did

BIG GAP erased by Rosemary's very long leg

Wednes - July 26
Holy shit David was right! Tenet kiss my keyboard!

[clarice]

All right. You erred. Enough already. There are some other more pressing problems--like UN salaries may be held up because they won't reform and we won't pay unless they do. It's so tragic.

[kim]

Thanks, Kate. I'm actually pretty dumb.
========================================

[Senior Gabon]

kim - know B"A" - you'd be a numb brah! whities be all in themselves brah!
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

[topsecretk9]

Senior Gab
Could you give us a hint at what you mean???

Kim of course is poetic and our little treasure!

Cooper is in trouble is what I think. Cecil has the MOST sexy answers to this all and Kate chimes in with a psyche venture ---B ut I think the Coop is in trouble of HELPING Rove!!!

[kim]

Hey Pa mina,
get in lina.
=============

[kim]

Take numbo,
Mambo Gambo.
=======================

[kim]

Take a numberah,
Hootsie Tootsie,
Shake a bumberah,
Watusi ma Tutsi.
==================

[senior Gabon]

the UrrANIUM IS bright brah
we be thinkin' Niger brah
but the road was wide in Gabon bra
draggin' it to Niger had America Sunkin' brah
if they went to Niger it would all be a "De-Bunkin" brah

[senior Gabon]

Say what?
Oh my, Gabon has been the prize all this long, long time brah?
Take a trip diplomatically, brah!

[senior Gabon]

I am TOO anxious brah
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

[JM Hanes]

tops
"Found a bug in Safari...once the open tag happens it will NOT correct the view when someone closes it."

When you forget an end-tag in your post, you can correct it in a subsequent post by typing the end-tag twice in a row.

[Dwilkers]

"Will Luskin testify under oath, too? If not, why not?"

No, of course not. He's Rove's lawyer.

"Yeah, I like tying up loose ends. That's what second grand juries are used for traditionally, right?"

I think Kate has that right. The second GJ is for something else, probably related to the Woodward thing.

I think Cathy's hypothetical is probably fairly close to what's going on - although it may not be directly about the Cooper thing, it could be some other obscura. It would explain why Fitz would be trying to understand a conversation between a third party and Rove's lawyer, which was is really dicey territory. It never did make much sense within the context we were mulling.

[Dorf]

Just keep holding on for that pension. My how glamorous.

[kim]

Gabon pere,
Do you dare,
Lay out bare,
What there is there?
========================

[noah]

News for the Plame obsessed. She is retiring after 20.

[cathyf]

When you forget an end-tag in your post, you can correct it in a subsequent post by typing the end-tag twice in a row.

...and in every browser but safari, it'll appear just fine. I haven't found anything that will close the tags in safari, though. Coupla weeks ago we had a really long comment thread, and by the last half of it, the comments were boldfaced, italicized, and had some really funky thing going on with the blockquote tab so they were this very skinny column with gobs of whitespace on either side.

See what you're missing? ;-} Every so often I try to change to firefox (which I use on the pc) but it has a tendency to freeze up. And I've got multiple multi-tab bookmark setups and I'm just too lazy to redo the setup yet again for netscape.

cathy :-)

[willem]

Gabon confluence: Kofi, Wilson, Chirac, Savon? Senior? More? Por favor?

[Neo]

Did Viveca Novak know Ms. Flame worked as a WMD analysis for the CIA ?

[Rick Ballard]

Neo,

Who didn't?

[topsecretk9]

Cathy f

So that's the thing with Safari. WOW people are tech savvy.

[cathyf]

Yeah, safari is a little rough. I've heard that if I upgrade the OS to 10.4 then I can get the latest version of safari and lots of those annoying bugs are fixed. But its eccentricities are trivial compared to IE sending your credit card and bank account numbers and pin numbers to organized crime gangs in Russia. It just amazes me that people would enter personal information into a microsoft product.

cathy :-)

[Syl]

Cathy

Why someone who thinks as logically as you do, spouts nonsense like that about IE I don't know.

That's just silly.

[boris]

Microsoft isn't evil but their stuff is in serious need of the kind of improvement Japanese competition brought to the auto industry.

[kim]

Oui, Guillaume, s'il vous plait.
Rendez-vous tous les tetes.
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