1 Down, 3 To Go

Top Cheney aide indicted in leak probe

By Adam Entous and James Vicini Fri Oct 28, 9:12 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In a damaging blow to a beleaguered White House,
Vice President *** Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis Libby, was indicted
on Friday for obstructing justice, perjury and lying after a two-year
investigation into the leak of a covert CIA operative's identity.

Libby resigned his White House post and faces up to 30 years in prison
in a case that has put a spotlight on how the administration sold the
nation on the war in Iraq and countered its critics.

Cheney said Libby would "fight the charges brought against him." Libby
predicted: "At the end of this process I will be completely and totally
exonerated."

President George W. Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove, was not
indicted along with Libby, but special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald has
made clear to Rove he remains under investigation and in legal
jeopardy, lawyers said.

"It's not over," Fitzgerald told a news conference.

Bush said the investigation and legal proceedings were "serious and now
the process moves into a new phase."

Reggie Walton, the federal judge chosen to handle Libby's case, was
appointed by Bush to the court. An arraignment for Libby to enter a
plea has yet to be scheduled.

Libby's indictment raises the specter of a politically damaging
criminal trial. Lawyers involved in the leak case said Cheney himself
and other top White House officials can expect to be called as
witnesses.

The White House is already reeling over the slow response to Hurricane
Katrina, growing opposition to the Iraq war and the withdrawal of
Bush's nominee for the
U.S. Supreme Court, Harriet Miers, under fire from Bush's conservative
base.

Despite initial denials, both Rove and Libby spoke to reporters in June
and July 2003 about the CIA operative, Valerie Plame.

Libby, who played a major behind-the-scenes role in building the case
for the Iraq war, was accused in the five-count indictment of making
false statements about how and when he learned and disclosed to
reporters classified information about Plame.

PAYBACK FOR OPPOSITION TO WAR?

Plame's cover was blown after her diplomat husband, Joseph Wilson,
accused the Bush administration of twisting prewar intelligence to
support military action against Iraq. Wilson said it was done
deliberately to erode his credibility.

"Today is a sad day for America," Wilson said in a statement. "When an
indictment is delivered at the front door of the White House, the
Office of the President is defiled."

Some Republicans have accused Fitzgerald of being overzealous by
pursuing "legal technicalities" instead of the underlying crime. Libby
was not charged with illegally disclosing the name of a covert CIA
operative.

"I'll be blunt," Fitzgerald said in response. "That talking point won't
fly."

He also sought to distance the charges from the growing national debate
over the Iraq war, saying the issue was whether "Libby lied or not" and
not whether "the war was justified or unjustified."

If convicted, Libby, 55, faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison
and a $1.25 million fine.

The charges accuse Libby of lying to FBI agents who interviewed him on
October 14, 2003, and November 26, 2003, committing perjury while
testifying under oath to the grand jury twice in March 2004, and
engaging in obstruction of justice by impeding the grand jury's
investigation.

Fitzgerald dismissed as "false" Libby's story that he learned about
Wilson's wife from reporters. "He was at the beginning of the chain of
phone calls, the first official to disclose this information outside
the government to a reporter. And then he lied about it afterwards,
under oath and repeatedly," Fitzgerald said.

Wilson based his criticism of the administration in part on a
CIA-sponsored mission he made to Africa in 2002 to check out an
intelligence report that Iraq sought uranium from Niger.

Bush cited intelligence that Iraq sought uranium from Africa in his
2003 State of the Union address, but Wilson later said the claim was
unsubstantiated.

ROVE STILL UNDER SCRUTINY

Cheney's office sought to discredit Wilson and his findings by
suggesting the trip had been arranged by his wife.

The indictment showed that Libby began seeking information about Wilson
and his wife in late May 2003, some six weeks before Plame's identity
was publicly disclosed in a July 14, 2003, newspaper column by Robert
Novak.

It appears that Libby first learned that Wilson's wife worked at the
CIA -- and that she was involved in organizing his trip to Niger -- on
June 11 or June 12, 2003, in conversations with the undersecretary of
State and a senior officer at the CIA, who were not identified by name.
The undersecretary referred to in the documents is Marc Grossman.

The indictment also highlighted Cheney's role. Libby learned from
Cheney himself on June 12, 2003, that Wilson's wife worked in the
counterproliferation division of the CIA.

Legal sources said Rove could still face perjury charges for initially
failing to tell the grand jury he talked to Time magazine reporter
Matthew Cooper about Plame.

Prosecutors did not identify Rove by name in the indictment, referring
to him only as "Official A." Prosecutors said "Official A" told Libby
that Novak was writing a column about Plame.

"The special counsel has advised Mr. Rove that he has made no decision
about whether or not to bring charges," Rove's attorney, Robert Luskin,
said in a statement.

(Additional reporting Deborah Charles)
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