US: E-mails turned over by Time magazine to a special prosecutor show that president George Bush's political adviser, Karl Rove, spoke to a reporter at the heart of an investigation into the possible criminal leak by an administration official of an undercover CIA official's name, writes Conor O'Clery in New York.
The e-mails surrendered were largely between Matthew Cooper and his Time editors, according to two lawyers quoted in the rival Newsweek magazine.
Mr Rove's lawyer, Robert Luskin, confirmed that Mr Rove had been interviewed by Cooper for the article in which he named Valerie Plame as a CIA operative.
In an article in Time magazine, Mr Luskin is quoted as saying Cooper called Mr Rove during the week before the story first appeared in a syndicated column by conservative Robert Novak.
However, Mr Rove's lawyer declined to say what they discussed and asserted that Mr Rove "has never knowingly disclosed classified information". Newsweek reported that immediately after Novak's column appeared in July 2003, Rove called MSNBC Hardball host Chris Matthews and told him that Ms Plame was "fair game". Her name was leaked by unnamed senior Bush administration officials after her husband, former ambassador Joe Wilson, angered the White House by alleging it had manipulated intelligence to justify war against Iraq.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said at the time that any suggestion that Mr Rove had played a role in outing Ms Plame was "totally ridiculous."
Months later, Mr McClellan was asked directly if Rove and two other White House aides had ever discussed Ms Plame with any reporters. Mr McClellan said he had spoken with all three, Newsweek reported, and "those individuals assured me they were not involved in this".
Special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald has issued subpoenas for at least five journalists, but Cooper and Judith Miller of the New York Times refused to name their sources and face prison after the Supreme Court refused to hear their case last week.
Cooper's story referred to a CIA-sponsored trip taken by Joseph Wilson to investigate reports that Iraq was seeking to buy uranium from Niger.
In July 2003 he wrote on Time's website that "some government officials" had noted to Time in interviews "that Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, is a CIA official".
Three days earlier Novak had written that Wilson, a Bush administration critic, had been sent, at the suggestion of his wife, whom he identified, a report that served to discredit Wilson's mission.
It is a crime to knowingly reveal the identity of an undercover CIA official and the leak to Novak caused an uproar.
Mr Rove's lawyer said that Mr Rove spoke to Cooper three or four days before Novak's column appeared. Mr Luskin told Newsweek that Rove "did not tell any reporter that Valerie Plame worked for the CIA".