WP: Robert Novak Acknowledges Confidential Administration Sources

Robert Novak Acknowledges Confidential Administration Sources
By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 11, 2006; 6:23 PM

Syndicated columnist Robert Novak acknowledged for the first time today that he identified three confidential administration sources during testimony in the CIA leak investigation, saying he did so because they had granted him legal waivers to testify and because special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald already knew of their role.

In a column to be published on Wednesday, Novak said he told Fitzgerald in early 2004 that White House senior adviser Karl Rove and then-CIA spokesman Bill Harlow had confirmed for him, at his request, information about CIA operative Valerie Plame. Novak said he also told Fitzgerald about another senior administration official who originally provided him with the information about Plame, and whose identity he says he cannot reveal even now.

"I'm still constrained as a reporter," Novak said in an interview. "It was not on the record, and he has never revealed himself as being the source, and until he does I don't feel I should."...

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Novak says in the forthcoming column that he initially refused to reveal he sources in an October 2003 interview with three FBI officials. He says he remained reluctant to testify before Fitzgerald, even with the waivers the three officials had given the prosecutor, but that his lawyer told him he was sure to lose a costly legal battle and be cited for contempt of court. Novak says he testified before a grand jury a few weeks later, in February 2004, after reading a statement about his discomfort in discussing confidential sources.

He said he is speaking out now because Fitzgerald has notified his attorneys that the investigation, as it relates to him, has been concluded....

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