Robert Novak said today that nobody in the Bush administration called him to reveal the identity of Joseph Wilson’s wife: Columnist Refuses to Reveal Source of Iraq Report.

“What’s the fuss about?” asked Novak, a Chicago Sun-Times columnist who is also a conservative commentator on CNN.

“There is no great crime involved here… The fuss is made on this because it involves (Republican President George W.) Bush,” he said on CNN. “I do not reveal confidential sources.”

The Justice Department is considering starting a full investigation into the leak. A leak of classified information is a federal crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

The controversy centers on the disclosure in one of Novak’s columns that Valerie Plame, the wife of Joseph Wilson, a former U.S. ambassador to Gabon, was an undercover CIA operative specializing in weapons of mass destruction.

“Nobody in the Bush administration called me to leak this,” Novak said, saying the information was disclosed to him while he was interviewing a senior Bush administration official.