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Arash

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Oct 28, 2005, 6:56:32 AM10/28/05

New York Times
October 28, 2005

Aide to Cheney Appears Likely to Be Indicted; Rove Under Scrutiny

By David Johnston & Richard W. Stevenson

Washington D.C. -- Associates of Irv Lewis "Scooter" Libby
(http://rightweb.irc-online.org/ind/libby/libby.php), Vice President Dick Cheney's
chief of staff, expected an indictment on Friday charging him with making false
statements to the grand jury in the CIA leak inquiry, lawyers in the case said
Thursday.

Karl Rove (http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/usa/karl-rove), President Bush's senior
adviser and deputy chief of staff, will not be charged on Friday, but will remain
under investigation, people briefed officially about the case said.

As a result, they said, the special counsel in the case, Patrick J. Fitzgerald
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Fitzgerald), was likely to extend the term of
the federal grand jury beyond its scheduled expiration on Friday.

As rumors coursed through the capital, Patrick Fitzgerald gave no public signal of
how he intends to proceed, further intensifying the anxiety that has gripped the
White House and left partisans on both sides of the political aisle holding their
breath.

Fitzgerald's preparations for a Friday announcement were shrouded in secrecy, but
advanced amid a flurry of behind-the-scenes discussions that left open the
possibility of last-minute surprises. As the clock ticked down on the grand jury,
people involved in the case did not rule out the disclosure of previously unknown
aspects of the case.

White House officials said their presumption was that Lewis Libby
(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=I._Lewis_Scooter_Libby) would resign if
indicted, and he and Karl Rove took steps to expand their legal teams in preparation
for a possible court battle.

Among the many unresolved mysteries is whether anyone in addition to Lewis Libby and
Karl Rove might be charged and in particular whether Fitzgerald would name the source
who first provided the identity of an undercover CIA officer to Robert D. Novak
(http://mediamatters.org/items/200508040004), the syndicated columnist. Robert Novak
identified the officer in a column published July 14, 2003
(http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/robertnovak/2003/07/14/160881.html).

The investigation seemed to be taking an unexpected path after nearly two years in
which Fitzgerald brought more than a dozen current and former administration
officials before the grand jury and interviewed Bush and Cheney to determine how the
identity of the officer, Valerie Plame Wilson
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plame_affair), became public.

Fitzgerald's spokesman, Randall Samborn, declined to comment.

Special counsel Fitzgerald has examined whether the leak of Valerie Plame Wilson's
identity was part of an effort by the administration to respond to criticism of the
White House by her husband, ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_C._Wilson), a former diplomat. After traveling
to Africa in 2002 on a CIA-sponsored mission to look into claims that Iraq had sought
to acquire material there for its nuclear weapons program, ambassador Wilson wrote in
an Op-Ed article ("What I Didn't Find in Africa") in The New York Times on July 6,
2003, that the White House had "twisted" the intelligence it used to justify the
invasion of Iraq (http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0706-02.htm).

At the White House, the withdrawal of Harriet E. Miers as the president's nominee to
the Supreme Court dominated the day. Still, officials waited anxiously for word about
developments in the investigation, which has the potential to shape the remainder of
Bush's second term.

Officials said that Bush, who traveled to Florida on Thursday to view the damage from
Hurricane Wilma, would keep to his planned schedule on Friday, including a speech on
terrorism in Norfolk, Virginia, if indictments were announced.

Administration officials said that the White House would seek to keep as low a
profile as possible if indictments were issued; Scott McClellan, the White House
press secretary, did not schedule a briefing for Friday, and Bush plans to leave in
the afternoon for a weekend at Camp David.

With so much about the outcome of the case still in doubt, political strategists in
Washington spent the day gaming out the implications of different endings.

People in each political party said indictments of both Lewis Libby and Karl Rove
would be a major blow to the administration at a time when it is struggling across
many fronts.

Should Karl Rove eventually avoid indictment, the political implications would be
less severe, they said. Karl Rove is Bush's closest and most trusted adviser, and any
charges would not only bring the case that much closer to the Oval Office, but also
deprive the administration of its primary strategist and big-picture thinker at a
time when it is struggling to get back on track.

Yet any indictment would leave the White House facing the prospect of a drawn-out
legal proceeding that is likely to touch on what Bush and Cheney knew about the
effort to deal with ambassador Wilson's criticism, as well as keeping a spotlight on
the shortcomings in administration prewar intelligence about Iraq's weapons.

Fitzgerald has been closely examining the truthfulness of accounts given by Karl Rove
and Lewis Libby about their conversations with reporters about Valerie Plame Wilson.
As early as February 2004, two months after he was appointed, Fitzgerald obtained a
specific written authorization from James B. Comey, the deputy attorney general who
appointed him, permitting him to investigate efforts to mislead the inquiry.

The prosecutor has inquired how Lewis Libby and Karl Rove first learned that Valerie
Plame Wilson was employed at the CIA and whether the discussions were part of a
deliberate effort to undermine the credibility of her husband, according to lawyers
in the case. The lawyers declined to be named, citing Fitzgerald's request not to
discuss the case.

Allies of Karl Rove and Lewis Libby have hoped that Fitzgerald could be persuaded
that any misstatements were inadvertent and not intended to conceal their actions
from prosecutors.

In addition, they have hoped that the prosecutor would conclude it would be difficult
to convince a jury that Karl Rove or Lewis Libby had a clear-cut motive to misinform
the grand jury. Lawyers for the two men declined to comment on their legal status.

In Karl Rove's case, the prosecutor appears to have focused on two conversations that
Rove had with reporters. The first, on July 9, 2003, was with Robert Novak. Karl Rove
told the grand jury that Robert Novak mentioned Valerie Plame Wilson and that was the
first time he had heard Valerie Plame Wilson's name.

Karl Rove's second conversation took place on July 11, 2003, with Matthew Cooper
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Cooper), a reporter for Time magazine. Earlier
this year, Matthew Cooper wrote that Karl Rove did not name Valerie Plame Wilson but
told him that she worked at the CIA and had been responsible for sending her husband
to Africa (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowcake_forgery).

In his first sessions with prosecutors, Karl Rove did not disclose his phone
conversation with Matthew Cooper, the lawyers said, though he disclosed from the
start his conversation with Robert Novak. The lawyers added that Karl Rove did not
recall the conversation with Matthew Cooper until the discovery of an email note
about the conversation that he had sent to Stephen J. Hadley
(http://rightweb.irc-online.org/ind/hadley/hadley.php), then the deputy national
security adviser. But Fitzgerald has been skeptical about the omission, the lawyers
said.

In Lewis Libby's case, Fitzgerald has focused on his statements about how he first
learned of Valerie Plame Wilson's identity. Early in the investigation, Lewis Libby
turned over notes of a meeting with Dick Cheney in June 2003 that indicated the vice
president had told him about Valerie Plame Wilson, the lawyers said.

But Lewis Libby told the grand jury that he learned of Valerie Plame Wilson from
reporters, lawyers involved in the case. Reporters who are known to have talked to
Lewis Libby have said that they did not provide him the name, could not recall what
had been said or had discussed unrelated subjects.
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