Prosecutor, Judge in CIA Leak Probe Meet

Prosecutor, Judge in CIA Leak Probe Meet

Wednesday, October 26, 2005
WASHINGTON - The prosecutor in the CIA leak probe had a confidential lunchtime meeting with a federal judge Wednesday after a grand jury listened to three hours of testimony in the case that has ensnared top White House aides.

The grand jury's term expires on Friday, and the panel adjourned for the day without announcing any charges or other action. The administrative assistant to Thomas Hogan, the chief judge of U.S. District Court in the nation's capital, confirmed Hogan's meeting with Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald. The assistant, Sheldon Snook, declined to comment on what was discussed.

No witnesses were seen going into the grand jury area, only Fitzgerald and his deputies.

The prosecutor is known to be putting the finishing touches on a two-year criminal investigation that has involved President Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove, and Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby.

Lawyers representing White House officials expect Fitzgerald to decide this week whether to charge Libby and Rove. The lawyers, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the criminal investigation is at a highly sensitive stage, regard it as unlikely that Fitzgerald would seek to extend the life of the grand jury.

There was no word on whether the grand jury planned to meet Thursday.

Away from the federal courthouse, FBI agents conducted a handful of last-minute interviews to check facts key to the case.

Rove and Libby joined other administration officials Wednesday at the daily White House senior staff meeting, as usual. Libby has been on crutches after breaking a bone in his foot.

Fitzgerald could charge one or more administration aides with violating a law prohibiting the intentional unmasking of an undercover CIA officer.

The prosecutor has also examined other possible crimes such as mishandling classified information, making false statements or obstruction of justice.

Fitzgerald has been in Washington since Monday and over the past two days dispatched FBI agents to conduct 11th-hour interviews, according to lawyers close to the investigation, who also spoke on condition of anonymity.

One set of interviews occurred in the neighborhood of Bush administration critic Joseph Wilson, whose wife Valerie Plame was revealed as an undercover CIA officer. Agents asked neighbors whether they had any inkling that Plame worked for the CIA.

Two lawyers familiar with the activities said the interviews involved basic fact-checking and did not appear to plow new ground.

Fitzgerald may want to establish that Plame had carefully protected her CIA identity, part of the process of determining whether the disclosure of her name amounted to a crime.

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