Rove taps Corallo for media support

WASHINGTON: Karl Rove's legal team has turned to Mark Corallo, former public affairs director for the US Department of Justice, for media strategies and communications support in response to special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald's CIA leak investigation.

Rove attorney Robert Luskin reached out to Corallo last week as Fitzgerald announced the first indictments from his investigation. While the grand jury did not issue any indictments against Rove, Fitzgerald said the White House senior adviser and chief political strategist remains under investigation. "Bob Luskin has been doing a lot of [media relations work]. He's a lawyer and he needs to be focused on the legal matters at hand," said Corallo, who founded his own PR firm, Corallo Media Strategies, earlier this year. "They asked me to step in and give them some advice and also to handle the volume of calls from journalists." Reporters are continuing to check in with Corallo about Rove on a daily basis, he said, but "it's not quite as fast and furious" as it was in the days prior to October 28, when Fitzgerald announced the grand jury's charges against Lewis Libby, VP Dick Cheney's chief of staff. Corallo said he will continue to provide communications support for the duration of the investigation. "We'll breathe a sigh of relief when the special prosecutor calls us and says that he has concluded ? what we are confident he will conclude ? that Karl has done nothing wrong," he said. Corallo, who served as chief spokesman at the Justice Department from 2002 to 2005, previously worked as communications director for the House Committee on Government Reform from 1999 to 2002 and press secretary to Rep. Bob Livingston (R-LA), who stepped down as House speaker-elect in 1998 after admitting to an extramarital affair.