An embattled White House braced on Friday for criminal charges against Vice-President Dick Cheney’s top aide in an investigation of the leak of an undercover CIA officer’s identity.
Meanwhile, President George Bush’s top political adviser, Karl Rove, remains under investigation.
White House colleagues expected I Lewis ”Scooter” Libby, Cheney’s chief of staff, to be charged with making false statements.
Libby is considered Cheney’s alter ego, a chief architect of the war with Iraq. Any trial of Libby would give the public a rare glimpse of Cheney’s influential role in the White House and his behind-the-scene lobbying for war.
No charges were expected on Friday against Rove. His lawyer was told by prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald’s office that investigators had not completed their probe into his conduct, said two people close to Rove, speaking only on condition of anonymity because of grand-jury secrecy.
Fitzgerald planned an announcement later on Friday. It is bound to be a blow for a White House just one day after Bush’s choice to fill a vacancy on the United States Supreme Court, Harriet Miers, was forced to withdraw her nomination after an extraordinary backlash from Bush’s conservative Republican base.
Bush’s popularity has been falling with declining support for the Iraq war, criticism of his handling of Hurricane Katrina and growing concerns about rising energy prices and economic uncertainty.
The investigation centres on the leak to journalists of the identity of undercover CIA officer Valerie Plame, whose husband had accused Bush of misstating intelligence on the Iraq war.
The lack of charges against Rove is a mixed outcome for the administration. It keeps in place the president’s top adviser, the architect of his political machine whose fingerprints can be found on virtually every policy that emerges from the White House. But leaving Rove in legal jeopardy keeps Bush and his team working beneath a dark cloud of uncertainty.
Rove, who testified four times before the grand jury, has stepped back from some of his political duties such as speaking at fund-raisers but is said to be otherwise immersed in his sweeping portfolio as deputy White House chief of staff.
Grand juries meet behind closed doors to consider evidence about whether someone should be charged with a crime. Unlike trial juries, grand juries don’t decide if someone is guilty of criminal charges that have been brought against them.
Brave face
Bush and his advisers put on a brave face on Friday. Before he left for a speech on terrorism, the president chatted with Cheney and Rove in the Oval Office along with smiling aides.
”If the special prosecutor has any announcement to make, then I think you could expect that we’ll have more to say after that,” Bush spokesperson Scott McClellan said.
Fitzgerald and his investigators have been trying to determine whether Rove, Libby or any other administration officials knowingly revealed the identity of Plame or lied about their involvement to investigators.
Her husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson, has accused the White House of revealing his wife’s identify to undercut his allegations against Bush.
Rove’s legal problems stem in part from the fact that he failed initially to disclose to prosecutors a conversation in which he told Time magazine reporter Matt Cooper that Plame worked for the CIA. Rove says the conversation slipped his mind.
White House credibility has been on the line from the start.
McClellan, after checking with Rove and Libby, assured reporters that neither man was involved in the leak. Months later, reports surfaced that suggested they were involved.
On July 7, the president told reporters that if anyone in his administration committed a crime in connection with the leak, that person ”will no longer work in my administration”. Weeks later, he backpedalled from that assertion. — Sapa-AP