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Rove cleared of naming CIA spy
Karl Rove, President Bush's policy strategist, has been told by prosecutors he will not be charged with any crimes in the investigation into the leak of a CIA officer's identity, his lawyer said today.
Robert Luskin said that special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald told him of the decision yesterday, ending months of speculation about the fate of one of George Bush's closest advisers.
The decision comes after Mr Rove testified five times before a grand jury over the leaking to the press that Valerie Plame, the wife of former US ambassador Joseph Wilson, was a covert CIA agent.
"On June 12 2006, special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald formally advised us that he does not anticipate seeking charges against Karl Rove," Mr Luskin said in a statement. "We believe the special counsel's decision should put an end to the baseless speculation about Mr Rove's conduct."
Critics of the US government have claimed that Ms Plame's identity was deliberately leaked to journalists to discredit the views of her husband, a high-ranking critic of the Iraq war.
Last October, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the chief of staff to the US vice-president Dick Cheney, was charged with five counts of perjury, obstruction of justice and making false statements about the affair.
Administration critics claimed Mr Libby, who denies the charges, was told to leak her identity by his superiors, raising concerns about the possibly conduct of Mr Cheney and Mr Rove.
More
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1796621,00.html
The decision comes after Mr Rove testified five times before a grand jury over the leaking to the press that Valerie Plame, the wife of former US ambassador Joseph Wilson, was a covert CIA agent.
"On June 12 2006, special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald formally advised us that he does not anticipate seeking charges against Karl Rove," Mr Luskin said in a statement. "We believe the special counsel's decision should put an end to the baseless speculation about Mr Rove's conduct."
Critics of the US government have claimed that Ms Plame's identity was deliberately leaked to journalists to discredit the views of her husband, a high-ranking critic of the Iraq war.
Last October, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the chief of staff to the US vice-president Dick Cheney, was charged with five counts of perjury, obstruction of justice and making false statements about the affair.
Administration critics claimed Mr Libby, who denies the charges, was told to leak her identity by his superiors, raising concerns about the possibly conduct of Mr Cheney and Mr Rove.
More
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1796621,00.html
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A massive burden was lifted from the shoulders of the beleaguered White House yesterday, with the news that Karl Rove, President George Bush's key political adviser, will not face criminal charges in the inquiry into the leak of the identity of a CIA officer.
The happy tidings were conveyed in a letter from the special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, who since autumn 2003 has been investigating an affair that has cast a heavy cloud over the administration, amid intense speculation that Mr Rove would be indicted.
That threat has now vanished, leaving the White House deputy chief of staff - the man often referred to as "Bush's brain" - free to devote himself entirely to plotting a strategy to save the Republican party from defeat in this autumn's crucial mid-term elections, in which control of both the Senate and House of Representatives is at stake.
Even before the word of Mr Fitzgerald's decision had come through, Mr Rove was doing precisely that - telling New Hampshire Republicans in a speech that they had nothing to apologise for in liberating Iraq from a tyrant, and urging the party to capitalise on the strong performance of the economy under Mr Bush.
The exoneration of Mr Rove caps the best week for Mr Bush in months, following the killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and the long-awaited completion of a new government in Baghdad. These successes, the White House hopes, will not only improve the President's low approval ratings but give a much needed boost to Republican morale.
Beyond the elections, however, the leak investigation could still cause trouble for the administration. Mr Rove may have escaped - but Lewis "Scooter" Libby, once the powerful chief of staff to Vice-President Dick Cheney faces trial early next year on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice. At the trial, Mr Cheney could be called upon to testify.
The leak affair blew up in the summer of 2003, when the columnist Robert Novak first divulged the name of the CIA official Valerie Plame, the wife of former ambassador Joseph Wilson, a fierce critic of the Iraq war.
More
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article994081.ece