Cheney Aide Libby Is Indicted

Although damaging to the Bush presidency, the indictment was not as bad as many top officials had feared. Before yesterday's events, there was widespread concern inside the White House that Rove and others could be charged with either providing false statements or participating in an effort to leak Plame's name.

But at a news conference that ran more than an hour, a composed and chatty Fitzgerald cautioned that the investigation, while nearly complete, is not over.

The biggest piece of unfinished business involves Rove. Fitzgerald appeared set to charge Rove with making false statements until the White House deputy chief of staff provided new information on Tuesday that gave the prosecutor what two people described as "pause."

It is unclear what information Rove turned over. It is also unclear if it will be enough to prevent a grand jury from indicting him in the weeks ahead. If he decides to seek charges against Rove, Fitzgerald would present the evidence to a new grand jury because the one that indicted Libby expired yesterday and its term cannot be extended.

"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. "We are confident that when the Special Counsel finishes his work, he will conclude that Mr. Rove has done nothing wrong."

Fitzgerald refused to comment on Rove. A source close to Rove added, "There is still the chance that Mr. Rove could face indictment." Lawyers involved in the case said Fitzgerald is likely to put pressure on Libby to provide evidence against Rove or other potential targets.

Fitzgerald, whose investigation cost $723,000 in its first 15 months, according to the Government Accountability Office, spoke in public for the first time yesterday afternoon, exhibiting a mastery of the case's details in a 30-minute presentation he delivered while barely glancing at notes. He veered from joking with reporters to sounding idealistic.

"What we see here today, when a vice president's chief of staff is charged with perjury and obstruction of justice, it does show the world that this is a country that takes its law seriously, that all citizens are bound by the law," he said.

Yesterday's indictment brought new clarity, if not conclusion, to the CIA leak probe. It alleges that Libby, who was privy to the nation's most sensitive information, sought help from the White House and the national security apparatus in his effort to discredit Wilson.

It charges that he "knowingly and willfully" lied to FBI agents and the federal grand jury many times about how he learned about Plame, and then leaked information about her to the public. It also provides new and vivid details about Libby's alleged efforts to learn about Plame from the CIA, the State Department and at least one colleague in the vice president's office long before her name was publicly disclosed.

The prosecutor said that at a time when the United States is in dire need of human intelligence abroad to help prevent terrorist attacks, Libby's decision to discuss Plame's identity with reporters should frighten all Americans. "The fact that she was a CIA officer was not well-known, for her protection or for the benefit of all us . . . for the nation's security," he said.

Wilson, a former diplomat, had been sent on a CIA-sponsored mission to the African nation of Niger in 2002 to investigate whether Iraq was seeking nuclear-weapons-grade material -- as some in government, including a few in Cheney's office, suspected. Wilson returned from Niger unconvinced and reported his findings to the CIA.