The White House was on Wednesday struggling to carry on business as usual amid feverish speculation that top officials were facing criminal charges in a potentially crippling political scandal.
Patrick Fitzgerald, a special federal prosecutor, arrived soon after dawn at a Washington courthouse to present a grand jury with the results so far of his 22-month investigation into the leak two years ago of a CIA agent’s identity.
The scandal has already clearly taken a toll on the White House’s credibility. A CNN-Gallup poll published on Wednesday found only one in 10 Americans thought the administration had done nothing wrong, while 39% thought it had done something illegal and 39% thought its actions merely unethical.
Testimony from journalists has shown the president’s closest aide, Karl Rove, and the vice-president’s chief of staff, Lewis Libby, were involved in the leak. The role of the Vice-President, Dick Cheney, has also come under scrutiny.
By Wednesday afternoon, however, it was still unclear whether anybody would be indicted in the affair, in which the White House is alleged to have blown the cover of a CIA officer, Valerie Plame, as part of a campaign to discredit her husband, Joseph Wilson. Eight days before the leak, Wilson had publicly questioned the justification of the Iraq war.
A few blocks further up Pennsylvania Avenue from the court, the White House doggedly focused on President George Bush’s agenda, meeting the US ambassador to Iraq, addressing an economic association and holding talks with the Macedonian prime minister.
Meanwhile, Bush’s spokesperson, Scott McClellan, had to fend off questions about the inquiry and about apparently misleading statements made by senior officials, including McClellan, denying any White House involvement in the leak.
At one point, McClellan appeared to distance himself from Rove and Libby, saying he had only been passing on ”assurances” in October 2003 when he told the press they were not involved.
Meanwhile, there were signs the investigation would carry on until the moment the grand jury convened to consider the evidence. FBI investigators are said to have questioned Plame’s neighbours to check whether they were aware she worked for the CIA. Some of the White House’s defenders have claimed she was only an analyst and not operating covertly at the time of the leak. According to The Washington Post, her neighbours said they had had no idea that she worked in intelligence before the leak.
Any government official found to have deliberately revealed the identity of a covert agent could face up to 10 years in prison, but it is hard for prosecutors to prove a leak was deliberate and that the leaker knew about the agent’s covert status. Other possible charges said to be being explored are perjury, obstruction of justice and conspiracy.
Reports circulated on United States political blogs of letters being issued to suspects, warning them of pending indictments, and of an announcement on Thursday. But there were also rumours that Fitzgerald would ask for an extension to his investigation.
Meanwhile, there was evidence that the inquiry was looking to the wider manipulation of intelligence before the Iraq invasion. According to one former intelligence official, the inquiry has had contacts with a parallel Italian inquiry into the forging of documents purporting to show Iraq was trying to buy uranium in Niger.
In Rome, the head of military intelligence (Sismi), Nicolo Pollari, has been summoned to Parliament on November 3 to answer questions about its role in the forgery after La Repubblica newspaper suggested Sismi may have circulated bogus documents to help Washington justify the invasion. — Guardian Unlimited Â