Rove/Plame: Waas on KR's fibs to FBI

Investigative reporter Murray Waas, who published the first authoritative story on Karl Rove's Plame problem in March 2004, claims in a new feature at the American Prospect website that Rove lied to the FBI about his conversations with reporters when first questioned by agents in late 2003. Coupled with the disclosure of a State Department report that circulated round the White House starting on July 7--which eyewitness accounts have placed in the hands of Colin Powell and then-press secretary Ari Fleischer--the prospects that Rove's alibi (I heard it from a reporter) will hold up now seem pretty bleak.

The omission by Rove [of his talk with Time's Matthew Cooper] created doubt for federal investigators, almost from the inception of their criminal probe into who leaked Plame's name to columnist Robert Novak, as to whether Rove was withholding crucial information from them, and perhaps even misleading or lying to them, the sources said.

Also leading to the early skepticism of Rove's accounts was the claim that although he first heard that Plame worked for the CIA from a journalist, he said could not recall the name of the journalist. Later, the sources said, Rove wavered even further, saying he was not sure at all where he first heard the information.

Read Waas's 7/19/05 story
Read Waas's original 3/8/04 story, "Plugging Leaks"
Go to Waas's blog, Whatever Already