Top Cheney aide Libby indicted, quits post

Cheney stands by Libby
Cheney issued a statement saying he had accepted Libby’s resignation “with deep regret.” He added that Libby was entitled to a presumption of innocence in the case and praised his longtime aide as “one of the most capable and talented individuals I have ever known.”

Rove’s lawyer said he was told by special prosecutor Fitzgerald’s office that investigators would continue their probe into the aide’s conduct.

Rove’s potential 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. Rove says the conversation slipped his mind.

The lack of an indictment against Rove was a mixed outcome for the administration. It keeps in place the president’s top adviser, the architect of his political machine whose fingerprints can be found on virtually every policy that emerges from the White House.

But leaving Rove in legal jeopardy keeps Bush and his team working on problems like the Iraq war, a Supreme Court vacancy and slumping poll ratings beneath a dark cloud of uncertainty.

Sen. Edward M Kennedy, D-Mass., said the indictment marked  “a new low since Watergate in terms of openness and honesty in our government.” Sen. John Kerry, who ran unsuccessfully against Bush last year, called the case “evidence of White House corruption at the very highest levels.”

Hoping to contain the damage, Republicans turned against Libby. Several welcomed his resignation. Others said the legal system should run its course.

“It’s time to stop the leaks and spin and turn Washington into one big recovery meeting where people say what they mean and mean what they say,” said Rep. Jim Ramstad, R-Minn.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said through a spokesman that the Senate won’t investigate the CIA leak.

Libby searched for information, indictment alleges
The indictment alleges that Libby began digging for details about Wilson, Plame’s husband and an Iraq war critic, well before the former ambassador went public July 6, 2003, in a newspaper opinion piece with his criticism of the Bush administration’s use of faulty prewar intelligence on Iraq’s nuclear ambitions.

Libby made his first inquiries about Wilson’s travel to Niger in late May 2003 — a trip the government sent him on in early 2002 to check on reports that Saddam was trying to buy uranium — and by June 11 Libby was informed by a CIA official that Wilson’s wife worked for the agency and might have sent him on the trip.

On June 12, 2003, the indictment alleges, Libby heard directly from Cheney that Plame worked for the spy agency.

“Libby was advised by the vice president of the United States that Wilson’s wife worked at the CIA in the counterproliferation division. Libby understood that the vice president had learned this information from the CIA,” Fitzgerald said.

A short time later, Libby began spreading information to reporters, starting with The New York Times’ Judith Miller on June 23.

The indictment says a substantial number of people in the White House knew about Plame’s CIA status before the publication of Robert Novak’s column on July 14, 2003, including former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer.

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