I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby, Vice President Cheney's closest political advisor, announced his resignation Friday shortly after he was indicted in the Plame CIA leak scandal investigation.
Libby has been charged with one count of obstruction of justice, two counts of perjury and two counts of making false statements to investigators. If convicted on all counts, the 55-year-old Libby could face as many as 30 years in prison and fines of up to $1.25 million.
President Bush's top aide, Karl Rove, was not indicted today but will reportedly still be under investigation. Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald will hold a news conference at 2:15 EDT Friday afternoon to discuss his findings in the case.
If the case goes to trial, issues surrounding the Bush administration's deliberations prior to its decision to invade Iraq in March 2003 would be at the center of the testimony. Bush initially claimed Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and was a threat to use them against the United States. In the 2 1/2 years since the invasion of Iraq, no weapons of mass destruction have been found. Intelligence information that cast serious doubts on the WMD claims was suppressed and/or ignored by the White House. Bush later tried to draw a link between Saddam Hussein and the terrorist group al-Qaeda although no such link has ever been established.
Libby handed in his resignation to Andy Card, the White House chief of staff. Card notified the president who accepted Libby's resignation. Libby then left the White House.
The indictment alleges that Libby began digging for details about Joseph Wilson, Plame's husband and an Iraq war critic, well before the former ambassador went public July 6, 2003, in a newspaper opinion piece with his criticism of the Bush administration's use of faulty prewar intelligence on Iraq's nuclear ambitions.
According to a news release by Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, 'Libby was advised by the vice president of the United States that Wilson's wife worked at the CIA in the counter proliferation division. Libby understood that the vice president had learned this information from the CIA.'
Libby then contacted reporter Judith Miller of the 'New York Times' as early as June 23, 2003 according to Fitzgerald.
