I read the story on the NYTimes website earlier tonight about Judith Miller going to jail, but just checked it out again, as it was updated at 10:49pm. Unless I missed this before (in which case, I'm sorry for posting old news), it appears that Rove is the source that released Cooper from his pledge of confidentiality.
Isn't this big news? Why is it buried on the second page of the story? By now, everyone knows Rove was mentioned in the emails, but this seems like additional confirmation of Rove's importance:
"Mr. Cooper's agreement to testify was limited to a single conversation with a single source." As I read that, and given the other info in the article (see jump), Cooper's only source was Rove. So doesn't that mean Cooper got the info about Plame from Rove? Does Rove's defense hang solely on a technicality (i.e., knowingly)?
According to the NY Times:
"Mr. Cooper's decision to drop his refusal to testify followed discussions on Wednesday morning among lawyers representing Mr. Cooper and Karl Rove, the senior White House political adviser, according to a person who has been officially briefed on the case. Mr. Fitzgerald was also involved in the discussions, the person said.
"In his statement in court, Mr. Cooper did not name Mr. Rove as the source about whom he would now testify, but the person who was briefed on the case said that he was referring to Mr. Rove and that Mr. Cooper's decision came after behind-the-scenes maneuvering by his lawyers and others in the case.
"Those discussions centered on whether a legal release signed by Mr. Rove last year was meant to apply specifically to Mr. Cooper, who by its terms would be released from any pledge of confidentiality he had made to Mr. Rove, the person said. Mr. Cooper said in court that he had agreed to testify only after he had received an explicit waiver from his source."
http://nytimes.com/2005/07/07/politics/07leak.html?pagewanted=2&ei=5094&en=289ad2f5b111636d&
amp;hp&ex=1120708800&partner=homepage
Update [2005-7-7 1:35:27 by NotaMandate]: According to a number of posters below, the LAT and WaPo appear to suggest that Rove was not Cooper's source. The NYT and Nightline seem to be saying that Rove is Cooper's source. I've changed the title of the diary to reflect this apparent dispute or parsing or whatever is going on -- it all seems very odd to me.