WASHINGTON, 29 October 2005 — Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, 55, was indicted yesterday by a grand jury of five charges, including obstruction of justice, making false statements and perjury — all stemming from a case investigating who leaked the name of a covert CIA agent in retaliation for her husband’s criticisms of the Iraq war. Federal law prohibits government officials from knowingly disclosing the identity of intelligence operatives.
Libby immediately resigned as chief of staff of Cheney. If convicted, Libby faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison and a $1.25 million fine, prosecutors said.
The investigation is not over, special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald said at a news conference. “But... very rarely do you bring a charge in a case that’s going to be tried in which you ever end a grand jury investigation. I can tell you that the substantial bulk of the work of this investigation is concluded.
“Nor will the indictment focus on if the war was justified or not,” he said.
“When citizens testify before grand juries, they are required to tell the truth,” Fitzgerald said. “The requirement to tell the truth applies equally to all citizens including persons who hold high positions in government.”
Fitzgerald said Libby had provided FBI agents with a “compelling story” indicating he was simply the recipient of information about Plame from reporters.
“He lied about it afterward, under oath and repeatedly,” Fitzgerald said.
The indictment threatens to throw President George W. Bush’s administration into confusion.
The president already is beset by public doubts about the invasion of Iraq, the government’s ability to respond to a natural disaster or terrorist attack, and the fight within his own Republican Party that forced him to withdraw the nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court.
Karl Rove, Bush’s deputy chief of staff, who has made four appearances before the grand jury, was not charged, though his role in the case remains under investigation.
Public support for the war, Bush’s central foreign policy challenge, may continue to erode with the revelation during the investigation that top officials tried to silence a critic of the war. Observers say the investigation would remind voters that the original rationale for the 2003 invasion of Iraq — Iraq’s supposed attempt to stockpile weapons of mass destruction — was false and then changed to a need to spread democracy in the region.
“It is slowly dawning on the American people that the Bush administration attack on Valerie and Joe Wilson was part of a broader conspiracy to hide the fact that our political leaders fabricated a case for war in Iraq. Dick Cheney, Scooter Libby, and Karl Rove, among others, apparently preferred to destroy a valuable intelligence asset rather than expose the truth that the United States went to war in Iraq based on misinformation and deception. That is a crime deserving the most serious punishment,” said Larry Johnson, former CIA intelligence analyst and State Department counterterrorism official.
Libby, a longtime Republican defense adviser, previously worked with Cheney at the Pentagon during the administration of President George H.W. Bush.
The Columbia University-trained lawyer has foreign policy expertise as a former aide in the Defense and State departments. He has been extremely loyal to Cheney and, in return, had the vice president’s unwavering trust. Yesterday’s indictment deprives Cheney of his closest adviser.
Cheney said Libby would fight criminal charges in connection with the unmasking of the CIA agent in 2003.
“Libby has informed me that he is resigning to fight the charges brought against him. I have accepted his decision with deep regret,” Cheney said in a statement released by the White House.
Despite initial denials, both Rove and Libby spoke to reporters in June and July 2003 about the CIA operative, Valerie Plame, whose identify was leaked to the media.
Libby, who played a major behind-the-scenes role in building the case for the Iraq war, was accused in the indictment of making false statements about how and when he learned and disclosed to reporters classified information about Plame.
Plame’s identity was leaked to the media after her diplomat husband, Joseph Wilson, accused the Bush administration of twisting prewar intelligence to support military action against Iraq. Wilson said it was done deliberately to erode his credibility.
