Time Reporter's Testimony Could Help Rove

First, it was the Washington Post's Bob Woodward dropping a bombshell in the CIA leak case that could help Vice President Dick Cheney's indicted former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's defense.

Now, insiders say White House senior official Karl Rove's lawyer thinks testimony from Time reporter Viveca Novak could take the heat off his client.

Libby's lawyers were elated by Woodward's testimony, calling it "a bombshell" and insisting that it cut the ground from under Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald's case that Libby was the first official known to have talked about Plame and her CIA status with a reporter.

The defense attorneys say they plan to rely on testimony from Woodward and other reporters to show that the former Cheney aide is not guilty of lying, providing misleading statements and obstructing justice in the course of the investigation, a person familiar with their legal strategy told the Post.

It is now thought that Novak can play a similar role in the case of Karl Rove.
Reporter Novak - no relation to syndicated columnist Bob Novak, who first "outed� Valerie Plame in a June 2003 column - is due to testify in the CIA leak probe. She will allegedly testify about her conversations with Rove's lawyer, Robert Luskin, which he reported to Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald, rousing the prosecutor's interest.

Sources have told the Washington Post that Novak's role could be the key to helping Rove avoid an indictment in the case.

One source, however, told the Post that it was Luskin's conversations with Novak, which he reported to Fitzgerald that helped persuade the prosecutor not to indict Rove in late October, when he brought perjury and obstruction-of-justice charges against Libby.

"This is what caused [Fitzgerald] to hold off on charging" Rove, the source told the Post.