Rove, White House Spokesman Get Subpoenas

Jan. 27, 2007 — -- Presidential advisor Karl Rove and White House communications director Dan Bartlett have received subpoenas to testify for the defense at the trial of former vice presidential aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, ABC News has learned from a lawyer with knowledge of the case.

The Libby defense indicated in March 2006 court papers that Karl Rove will be a "key witness" in the trial, and will testify concerning a conversation with Libby on July 10 or 11, 2003, regarding columnist Robert Novak's intent to print a story about Valerie Plame's employment at the CIA.

Trial watchers said the subpoenas make it clearer than ever that Libby's defense team will seek to put the Bush administration and its policies on trial.

"This is obviously primarily about the guilt or innocence of the defendant," former Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder told ABC News. "But in a larger sense, it's going to be an examination and perhaps even a trial about how this administration has conducted itself on matters of national security and on Iraq, specifically."

Libby is charged with perjury, making false statements and obstructing an investigation. His troubles began in 2003, when the name of a covert CIA operative, Plame, was leaked to a reporter. Naming a clandestine government operative is a crime.

The leak, according to the prosecution, marked an effort to discredit her husband, Joseph Wilson, who was critical of President Bush's claim during a State of the Union address that Iraq had been trying to acquire uranium from Niger.

Since then, the White House claim of Iraq's alleged effort to acquire nuclear materials has been widely discredited as false, and even the Bush administration no longer supports it. The perjury case centers largely on when Libby discovered Plame's name.

The latest subpoenas add two more high-profile witnesses to a trial that has already drawn in an impressive cadre of some of Washington's most prominent and politically connected figures.

Among the potential witnesses for the government's case against Libby, compiled based on statements made in court and more than 250 filings in the case, are: