Scooter Libby is Indicted: Karl Rove is Not

Posted on October 28, 2005

Things are heating up in Plamegate. Prosecutor Fitzgerald has reportedly leased more office space. Today, Scooter Libby was indicted for perjury, obstruction of justice and making false statements to the grand jury. Libby has resigned and will be replaced as Dick Cheney's Chief of Staff.

Vice President Cheney's Chief of Staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby has been indicted for five counts by the federal grand jury investigating the outing of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame for perjury, obstruction of justice and making false statements to the grand jury, RAW STORY can confirm.
Libby resigned. According to the New York Daily News, his post will be filled by Cheney's chief counsel David Addington. A detailed announcement will be made at 2:15 p.m. ET.
The only sitting Cabinet member to be indicted in recent history was President Reagan's labor secretary, Raymond J. Donovan. Accused of grand larceny in 1984, he was acquitted in 1987. H.R. Haldeman, chief of staff to President Nixon, resigned before being indicted -- and convicted -- in the Watergate coverup.

CNN is reporting that Karl Rove will not be charged, but will continue to be investigated, which Ann Coulter told Miles O'Brien "is the worst possible scenario for the White House." Everyone is now just waiting for the official statement from Fitzgerald at 2pm Eastern time today.

Update: Patrick Fitzgeral's first major press conference can be considered a success for him and his team. He came across as smart, thorough, concerned about the privacy rights of those being investigated, and non-partisan. He walked everyone through the charges agasinst Libby, which are all felonies. He made it very clear that outing a CIA agent is a very serious crime that hurts "all of us" and compromises our national security.

The grand jury by law has to be disbanded as of today. But he's not closing his investigation and moving home to Chicago, where he is a U.S. District Attorney. He won't say who might be indicted next or what he's investigating. But he's not going home, and he's leased more office space.

You can read the full text of the Scooter Libby indictment at The Smoking Gun.