Prosecutor winding up CIA leak probe (AP) Updated: 2005-10-26 22:11
Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald met Wednesday with the grand jury
investigating the leak of a CIA officer's identity, putting the finishing
touches on a two-year criminal probe that has ensnared two senior White House
aides.
I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby, Vice President Dick
Cheney's chief of staff, sits in the back seat of a car as he is driven
from his house, Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2005, in McLean, Va. Libby and top
presidential political adviser Karl Rove have emerged as central figures
in the CIA leak investigation of who leaked the name of covert CIA officer
Valerie Plame. [AP] |
Fitzgerald and the grand jurors entered the courthouse around 9 a.m. EDT,
with just three days left before the jury's term is set to expire. Away from the
jury, FBI agents conducted a handful of last-minute interviews to check facts
key to the case.
Lawyers representing key White House officials expected Fitzgerald to decide
as early as Wednesday whether to charge I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, who is Vice
President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, and top presidential political adviser
Karl Rove.
Both Rove and Libby joined other officials Wednesday at the daily White House
senior staff meeting, as usual.
The grand jury Fitzgerald has used in the investigation is set to expire
Friday. Fitzgerald could charge one or more presidential aides with violating a
law prohibiting the intentional unmasking of an undercover CIA officer.
In recent weeks the prosecutor has also examined other charges such as
mishandling classified information, false statements and obstruction of justice.
Fitzgerald has been in Washington since Monday and over the last two days
dispatched FBI agents to conduct some 11th-hour interviews, according to lawyers
close to the investigation, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the
secrecy of grand jury proceedings.
One set of interviews occurred in the neighborhood of Bush administration
critic Joseph Wilson, whose wife Valerie Plame was outed as an undercover CIA
officer. Agents asked neighbors whether they had any inkling that Plame works
for the CIA.
"They wanted to know how well we knew her, which is very well," said neighbor
David Tillotson. "Did we know anything about her position before the story
broke? Absolutely not."
Agents also interviewed a former unidentified associate of Rove's about his
activities around the time the leaks occurred.
Two lawyers familiar with the activities said the interviews involved basic
fact-checking and did not appear to plow new ground.
Fitzgerald may want to establish Plame had carefully protected her CIA
identity as part of the process of determining whether the disclosure of her
name to the news media hurt national interests.
On Tuesday, the White House sidestepped questions about whether Cheney passed
Plame's identity on to Libby.
Libby's notes suggest that he first heard from Cheney that Wilson's wife
worked at the CIA, The New York Times reported this week.
Columnist Robert Novak disclosed Plame's name on July 14, 2003, eight days
after Wilson said publicly that the Bush administration had twisted intelligence
to justify the invasion of Iraq.
The timing of Wilson's criticism was devastating for the Bush White House,
which was struggling to come to grips with the fact that no weapons of mass
destruction had been found in Iraq.
President Bush's claim that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction
was the administration's main argument for going to war.
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