Reports indicate Libby likely will be indicted

WASHINGTON — Lawyers in the CIA leak case expect I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, chief of staff for Vice President Dick Cheney, to be charged today with making false statements to a grand jury, The New York Times reported on its Web site Thursday.

Reuters news service also reported that lawyers involved in the case said Libby appeared likely to face indictment from the grand jury investigating the unmasking of a CIA operative.

Karl Rove, President Bush's senior adviser and deputy chief of staff, will not be charged today but will remain under investigation, the lawyers said.

As a result, they said, the special counsel in the case, Patrick Fitzgerald, was likely to extend the term of the federal grand jury beyond its scheduled expiration today.

The White House was lining up replacements for the two top aides Thursday in case they are indicted, sources told the New York Daily News.

Attorneys representing some of the potential defendants have been making final appeals to Fitzgerald to try to avoid indictment, raising the prospect of last-minute plea agreements, according to one lawyer involved in the case.

Valerie Plame's identity was leaked to the media after her diplomat husband, Joseph Wilson, accused the Bush administration of twisting prewar intelligence to support action against Iraq. Wilson said the leak was made deliberately to erode his credibility.

The White House initially denied Libby and Rove had anything to do with the leak, but in grand-jury testimony, reporters have singled them out as sources of information.

Fitzgerald could charge administration officials with knowingly revealing Plame's identity, as well as bring charges for easier-to-prove crimes including making false statements, perjury, obstruction of justice or disclosing classified information, lawyers involved in the case said.

Legal sources said Rove could face perjury charges for initially failing to tell the grand jury he had talked to Time magazine reporter Matt Cooper about Plame.

Columnist Robert Novak revealed Plame's name and her CIA status July 14, 2003, five days after talking to Rove and eight days after Wilson made his claim about Iraq.