WASHINGTON, 14 June 2006 — This has been one of the best weeks for the White House in months: The Iraq government finally announced it had filled all its Cabinet posts; Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, Iraq’s most notorious insurgent, was killed by US forces; and now news by the special prosecutor investigating the Valerie Plame CIA leak case that senior White House adviser Karl Rove will not be indicted.

The announcement cheered Republicans and a White House beleaguered by war and low approval ratings. Mark Corallo, a spokesman for Rove, said the White House official “is elated” and said, “we’re done.”

On Monday afternoon, the special prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, advised Rove that he would not be charged with any wrongdoing, effectively ending the nearly three-year criminal investigation that had at times focused intensely on Rove. Fitzgerald’s investigation had threatened Rove’s standing as President George Bush’s closest political adviser as the prosecutor investigated whether Rove tried to intentionally conceal a conversation he had with a Time magazine reporter in the week before the name of CIA intelligence officer, Valerie Plame Wilson, became public.

Plame’s name was leaked to reporters in 2003 after her husband, former ambassador Joe Wilson, publicly criticized the Bush administration’s handling of the war in Iraq. Federal law in the US makes it illegal to identify such CIA employees Fitzgerald’s probe had zeroed in on Rove, Bush’s top political strategist, and Lewis (Scooter) Libby, Vice-President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff. Libby resigned in October 2005 after being indicted in the case. He was charged with perjury, false statements and obstruction of justice in relation to conversations with federal investigators and his testimony before the grand jury.

Rove had testified five times before a grand jury, most recently in April. He admitted he spoke with columnist Robert Novak and Time magazine reporter Matt Cooper in the days before they published Plame’s name in July 2003. Rove also acknowledged speaking with conservative columnist Robert Novak just days before Novak wrote a piece speculating that Wilson received a government consulting contract because his wife worked for the CIA.

Rove, however, did not originally tell prosecutors about his conversation with Cooper, only revealing it after his lawyer discovered a White House e-mail that referred to it.

Fitzgerald was investigating whether Rove lied or obstructed justice in failing to initially disclose the conversation. The presidential aide blamed a faulty memory and sought to testify before the grand jury after finding the e-mail to correct his testimony.

Rove has been at Bush’s side since his days as Texas governor and was the architect of Bush’s two presidential election victories. He assumed new policy responsibilities inside the White House in 2005 as deputy chief of staff. However, as part of the shake-up brought by new White House chief of staff Joshua Bolten, Rove shed those policymaking duties earlier this year to return to full time politics.