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Luskin Speaks on Rove and Cooper

By Jeralyn, Section Valerie Plame Leak Case
Posted on Tue Jul 12, 2005 at 03:58:59 PM EST
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Byron York at NRO interviewed Robert Luskin, lawyer for Karl Rove today. He says Matthew Cooper "burned" Rove.

"By any definition, he burned Karl Rove," Luskin said of Cooper. "If you read what Karl said to him and read how Cooper characterizes it in the article, he really spins it in a pretty ugly fashion to make it seem like people in the White House were affirmatively reaching out to reporters to try to get them to them to report negative information about Plame."

Here's more:

According to Luskin, Cooper originally called Rove — not the other way around — and said he was working on a story on welfare reform. After some conversation about that issue, Luskin said, Cooper changed the subject to the weapons of mass destruction issue, and that was when the two had the brief talk that became the subject of so much legal wrangling. According to Luskin, the fact that Rove did not call Cooper; that the original purpose of the call, as Cooper told Rove, was welfare reform; that only after Cooper brought the WMD issue up did Rove discuss Wilson — all are "indications that this was not a calculated effort by the White House to get this story out."

"Look at the Cooper e-mail," Luskin continues. "Karl speaks to him on double super secret background...I don't think that you can read that e-mail and conclude that what Karl was trying to do was to get Cooper to publish the name of Wilson's wife."

Nor, says Luskin, was Rove trying to "out" a covert CIA agent or "smear" her husband. "What Karl was trying to do, in a very short conversation initiated by Cooper on another subject, was to warn Time away from publishing things that were going to be established as false." Luskin points out that on the evening of July 11, 2003, just hours after the Rove-Cooper conversation, then-CIA Director George Tenet released a statement that undermined some of Wilson's public assertions about his report. "Karl knew that that [Tenet] statement was in gestation," says Luskin. "I think a fair reading of the e-mail was that he was trying to warn Cooper off from going out on a limb on [Wilson's] allegations."

There's lots more, so go read York's article.

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    Luskin Speaks on Rove and Cooper | 8 comments (8 topical)
    Re: Luskin Speaks on Rove and Cooper (none / 0) (#1)
    by Che's Lounge on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:01:08 PM EST
    Gee, what a sad story. I almost cried. Poor Karl. He was only trying to HELP. FY Luskin.

    Re: Luskin Speaks on Rove and Cooper (none / 0) (#2)
    by Sailor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:01:08 PM EST
    "There's lots more, so go read York's article." Sorry, TL, I have a delicate stomach and have had my fill of lies by the admin today. "just hours after the Rove-Cooper conversation, then-CIA Director George Tenet released a statement that undermined some of Wilson's public assertions about his report." Perhaps he means this statement by tenet:
    In the fall of 2002, my Deputy and I briefed hundreds of members of Congress on Iraq. We did not brief the uranium acquisition story. Also in the fall of 2002, our British colleagues told us they were planning to publish an unclassified dossier that mentioned reports of Iraqi attempts to obtain uranium in Africa. Because we viewed the reporting on such acquisition attempts to be inconclusive, we expressed reservations about its inclusion but our colleagues said they were confident in their reports and left it in their document. In September and October 2002 before Senate Committees, senior intelligence officials in response to questions told members of Congress that we differed with the British dossier on the reliability of the uranium reporting.
    [...]
    The background above makes it even more troubling that the 16 words eventually made it into the State of the Union speech. This was a mistake.
    So this denigrates Wilson's statement how!? BTW, TL, TChris, et all lawyers, at what point does a vigorous defense stop and outright lying commence? I don't have a problem with luskin representing his client in any legal way and 'spin' is certainly fair. But luskin is just plain lying.

    Re: Luskin Speaks on Rove and Cooper (none / 0) (#3)
    by Al on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:01:08 PM EST
    I don't understand. Why did Rove bring up Valerie Plame at all then? Is Luskin claiming that it was Cooper who asked about Plame? How would Cooper know to ask about her? Am I missing something here?

    Re: Luskin Speaks on Rove and Cooper (none / 0) (#4)
    by Aaron on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:01:08 PM EST
    Karl Rove is most definitely one of Satan's minions, the archetypal Demon-seed Antichrist who quite literally eats Third World children for lunch. He'd sell out his mother, America and God himself to get and keep a corporate figurehead in office. Everybody who knows anything about this political hack knows that. If there were any justice in the world, this beady-eyed Republican butterball would be drafted and made to stand a post in Iraq. Too bad there's never a suicide bomber around when you need one.

    Re: Luskin Speaks on Rove and Cooper (none / 0) (#5)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:01:09 PM EST
    Byron York is a moron and knows how to do just one thing: spin for Bush. He's the intellectual Bill O'Reilly, I spose he makes ol' William F. proud of his progeny. Check his article titles for more proof here they are one joke after another.

    Re: Luskin Speaks on Rove and Cooper (none / 0) (#6)
    by kipling on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:01:09 PM EST
    But Karl is already on the record for saying WHY he was mentioning Wilson's wife: because "she was fair game". So this is not a smear campaign....how, exactly?

    Re: Luskin Speaks on Rove and Cooper (none / 0) (#7)
    by ppjakajim on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:01:09 PM EST
    kipling;
    But Karl is already on the record for saying WHY he was mentioning Wilson's wife: because "she was fair game". So this is not a smear campaign....how, exactly?
    I keep looking for the source of that quote, but can't find it. Do you have a link?

    Re: Luskin Speaks on Rove and Cooper (none / 0) (#8)
    by ppjakajim on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:01:09 PM EST
    Kipling - I mean one that has some zip to it. All I can find is Internet sources with no real authority.

    Luskin Speaks on Rove and Cooper | 8 comments (8 topical)