Washington – The prosecutor in the CIA leak investigation presented a summary of his case to a federal grand jury Wednesday and is expected to announce a final decision on charges in the two-year-long probe Friday, according to people familiar with the case.
Even as special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald wrapped up his case, the legal team of White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove has been engaged in a furious effort to persuade the prosecutor that Rove did not commit perjury during the course of the investigation, according to people close to Rove.
The sources, who indicated that the effort intensified in recent weeks, said Rove still did not know Wednesday night whether he would be indicted.
Fitzgerald is completing his probe of whether senior administration officials broke the law by disclosing the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame to the media in the summer of 2003 to discredit her husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson, an administration critic. The grand jury’s term will expire Friday.
After grand jurors left the federal courthouse before noon Wednesday, it was unclear whether Fitzgerald had spelled out the criminal charges he might ask them to consider or whether he had asked them to vote on any proposed indictments.
Fitzgerald’s legal team did not present the results of a grand jury vote to the court Wednesday. He is required to do so within days of such a vote.
Wednesday’s three-hour grand jury session came after agents and prosecutors this week conducted last-minute interviews with Adam Levine, a member of the White House communications team at the time of the leak, about his conversations with Rove and with Plame’s neighbors in Washington D.C.
Should he need more time to finish the investigation, Fitzgerald could seek to empanel a new group of grand jurors to consider the case.
But sources familiar with the prosecutor’s work said he has indicated he is eager to avoid that route. The term of the current grand jury has been extended once and cannot be lengthened again, according to federal rules.
The down-to-the-wire moves in Fitzgerald’s investigation have made for a harrowing week at the White House, where officials are girding for at least one senior administration official to be indicted, according to aides.
Most concern is focused on Rove and Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, Lewis “Scooter” Libby.
Both had testified that they talked with reporters about Plame in the summer of 2003, according to lawyers familiar with their accounts, but both said they did not discuss her by name or disclose her covert status.
Wednesday was another surreal day at the White House, according to aides, with staff members wondering who might be indicted. Rove and Libby continued to sit in on high-level meetings.
“We certainly are following developments in the news, but everybody’s got a lot of work to do,” White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters.
As jurors left the courthouse Wednesday, Fitzgerald met with Chief U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan in Hogan’s private chambers for about 45 minutes. One legal source said the two have met regularly to discuss practical matters about the case, which now include intense media interest and how to avoid improper leaks about secret grand jury matters.
