Rove May Have Leaked Name Of Harry Potter Character

WASHINGTON (CT) - Sources close to the grand jury investigating the leak of CIA agent Valerie Plame's name to columnist Robert Novak say prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is looking into accusations that presidential advisor Karl Rove was also responsible for leaking the identity of a covert operative to a Harry Potter fansite.

Earlier this week, Novak wrote a column for the Harry Potter Lexicon site announcing that a source had confirmed the identity of "R.A.B."Â? to be that of Regulus Black, the late brother of Harry's godfather Sirius Black and possibly the first individual to discover Lord Voldemort's secret collection of Horcruxes. The information has mysteriously disappeared from the site, sources say, after Novak and several other site authors were called to testify before Fitzgerald's grand jury.

Democrats called for Rove to be fired, citing a 1993 law that prohibits deliberately exposing the identity of an Order of the Phoenix member. "Once again Rove's outed a covert agent for political gain,"Â? said Delaware Senator Joseph Biden. "Who knows how much damage he's done to our effort against You-Know-Who."

Rove's defenders claim Regulus Black was a Death Eater, not an Order member, so the statute would not apply; they add his discovery of the Horcruxes was not even public knowledge until earlier this summer. "This guy's already dead," said blogger Instapundit. "How would leaking his name put him in danger?"

While evidence points to Rove as the leaker, the motive behind the leak is less clear. Novak was asked why Rove would leak Black's name on CNN's "Crossfire,"Â? but the columnist began shouting profanities and had to be helped off the set.

President Bush told reporters that he would cooperate with the investigation. "If someone leaked this name to the press," Bush said, "they will no longer work in my administration."