Rove testifies before grand jury again

WASHINGTON, April 26 (UPI) -- Top White House aide Karl Rove Wednesday was called before a U.S. federal grand jury looking into the leak of a CIA agent's name to the press.

At issue is whether President George W. Bush's top political adviser provided federal investigators and the grand jury with accurate information about his communications with Time magazine correspondent Matt Cooper regarding CIA operative Valerie Plame.

Her name was leaked to the media in the summer of 2003, just after her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, publicly criticized Bush's assertion that Saddam Hussein was trying to acquire yellowcake uranium to use in manufacturing nuclear weapons.

Vice President Dick Cheney's former top aide, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, was indicted in October on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice in connection with the leak of Plame's identity.

The Los Angeles Times reported Rove was to be questioned Wednesday about a conversation with Time's Cooper that he had initially denied. A later look into Rove's e-mail found he wrote about the interview to Stephen J. Hadley, who currently serves as National Security Adviser.

It was Rove's fifth appearance before the grand jury.