Indictments in Plame Case Near, as Focus Returns to Rove

By: E&P Staff With only three days remaining before the current term of the federal grand jury in the Plame case expires, the federal prosecutor has turned his attention back to top Bush aide Karl Rove, an article in the Wednesday edition of The New York Times reveals.

After several days where "Scooter" Libby dominated the headlines, the prosecutor, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, apparently is gathering final information on Rove and his conversations with reporters before seeking indictments, probably Wednesday, to be announced Thursday or Friday.

Rove could be nailed for being untruthful about his discussions with various reporters.

"Lawyers involved in the case have said that Mr. Rove, President Bush's senior adviser and deputy chief of staff, and I. Lewis Libby Jr., Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, face the possibility of indictment on perjury or other charges related to covering up their actions," the Times report observed.

White House officials, meanwhile, did not respond to questions about a report on Tuesday in the Times that Libby had first learned about C.I.A. officer Valerie Plame Wilson from Vice President Cheney several weeks before Robert Novak outed her in his column.

Although that report originally stated that Cheney had earlier testified in the leak probe under oath, the Times on Wednesday printed a correction saying that it "misstated the terms under which Vice President Dick Cheney was interviewed last year by the special counsel in the case. He was not under oath."

Meanwhile, Reuters reported that federal officials conducted last-minute interviews with Plame/Wilson neighbors. Marc Lefkowitz, who lives across the street from Plame, told Reuters two FBI agents asked him on Monday if he knew about Plame's CIA work before her identity was leaked to the press in 2003. Lefkowitz said he told them: "I didn't know."

Two lawyers involved in the case said such questioning could indicated that Fitzgerald "intended to charge administration officials for the leak itself, in addition to possible charges for easier-to-prove crimes like perjury and obstruction of justice," Reuters' Adam Entous wrote.

Democrats in Congress and liberal advocacy groups are now seeking to "turn up the pressure on the White House," the New York Times asserted. "The Center for American Progress, a liberal group, sought to focus attention on what Mr. Bush knew, saying in an e-mail message to supporters and journalists that the 'question that must now be answered is whether Vice President Cheney had any discussions about Valerie Plame with President Bush prior to her outing.'"