Washington – The prosecutor in the CIA leak case has told associates that he has no plans to issue a final report about the results of the investigation, heightening the expectation that he intends to bring indictments, according to lawyers in the case and law enforcement officials.
The prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, is not expected to take any action this week, according to government officials.
A final report had long been considered an option for Fitzgerald if he decided not to accuse anyone of wrongdoing. By signaling that he has no plans to issue the grand jury’s findings in such detail, he appeared to narrow his options either to indictments or closing his investigation with no public disclosure of his findings, a choice that would no doubt set off a political firestorm.
With the term of the grand jury expiring Oct. 28, lawyers involved in the case said they assume Fitzgerald is in the final stages of his inquiry.
The focus of Fitzgerald’s inquiry has remained fixed on two senior White House aides, Karl Rove, who is President Bush’s senior adviser and deputy chief of staff, and Lewis “Scooter” Libby, who is Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff. Both had conversations with reporters about the CIA officer whose name was later publicly disclosed.
It is not clear who else might be in Fitzgerald’s sights, and in particular whether he has learned who first identified the CIA officer, Valerie Plame Wilson, to the syndicated columnist Robert Novak in July 2003.