White House officials braced for the possibility that Vice President Dick Cheney's top aide would be indicted in the CIA leak case, but held out hope presidential confidant Karl Rove might escape charges for the time being.
Patrick Fitzgerald, the special counsel, signaled on Thursday that he might simply keep Rove under investigation, according to a person familiar with recent developments in the case who requested anonymity because of its sensitivity. That would spare Rove bad news when the grand jury that has heard the case for two years is set to expire.
Speculation flew across Washington early yesterday about who, if anyone, would be indicted regarding the exposure of covert CIA officer Valerie Plame.
At the White House, Cheney arrived at 6:25am, more than an hour earlier than usual. His chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, was seen leaving home about 6:15am, his normal commuting time. There was no sign of Rove outside his home early yesterday.
Rove attended a daily meeting of senior staff on Thursday and met with the president late in the evening, at the end of a day in which the White House dealt with the withdrawal of Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers. Libby was said to have passed up the meeting to attend a security briefing.
Possible charges are obstruction of justice or perjury, along with possible violations of a law barring disclosure of the identity of a covert intelligence agent.
Lawyers have raised the specter of broader conspiracy charges.
When the investigation began two years ago, a White House spokesman checked with Rove and Libby, then assured the public that neither was involved in leaking Plame's identity.
In the past month, it was revealed that Libby spoke to New York Times reporter Judith Miller, who says their conversations included Plame's CIA status.
Rove's legal problems stem in part from the fact that he failed initially to disclose to prosecutors a conversation in which he told Time magazine reporter Matt Cooper that Plame worked for the CIA.
Columnist Robert Novak revealed Plame's name and her CIA status on July 14, 2003. That was five days after Novak talked to Rove and eight days after Plame's husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson, published an opinion article in the New York Times accusing the Bush administration of twisting intelligence to exaggerate the threat posed by Iraq.
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