Libby Indicted, Self-Canned

Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald today announced a five count indictment of Lewis "Scooter" Libby, vice-president Cheney's chief aide, involving perjury and obstruction of justice. Libby promptly resigned.

Fitzgerald indicated his investigation will proceed. A new grand jury will be used for any further indictments.

Karl Rove is one of those under continuing investigation.

One element of the indictments that is at the heart of the media debate over the past few days in particular is Valerie Plame's secret or non-secret status. The indictment says clearly that Plame's employment at the CIA was classified, and not widely known. Fitzgerald in his press conference stressed that the security status is separate from whether she was covert or not covert. But within the indictment it was established that Libby was told in which branch of the CIA she worked, which in itself would have told an official with experience in national security that she was covert.

More details in excerpts from a Reuters report with additional reporting from Macon Daily.

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

Libby, who could face up to 30 years in prison, resigned minutes after the indictment was filed in a case that has put a spotlight on how the administration sold the nation on the war in Iraq and countered its critics.

In a statement, Cheney said Libby would "fight the charges brought against him."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.""I am confident that at the end of this process I will be completely and totally exonerated," Libby said in a statement.

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 indictment 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."

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 said Libby lied "under oath and repeatedly."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.Fitzgerald declined to predict when Libby's trial would begin but said he would not be arrested.

As for Rove, legal sources said the key Bush aide could at a later date face perjury charges for initially failing to tell the grand jury he talked to a Time magazine reporter about Plame.

Fitzgerald said he would use a new grand jury if necessary for any additional charges since the one that handed up Libby's indictment expired on Friday.

"The special counsel has advised Mr. Rove that he has made no decision about whether or not to bring charges and that Mr. Rove's status has not changed," Rove's attorney, Robert Luskin, said in a statement.Libby's indictment was available here.

http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/iln/osc/documents/libby_indictm ent_28102005.pdf.