Fitzgerald Asks Grand Jury to Indict Libby and Rove

The U.S. grand jury hearing evidence in the leak of a CIA agent's identity won't announce any indictments today, a Justice Department official said.

U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald met today with grand jurors at the federal courthouse in Washington. Fitzgerald made no comment as he and his staff arrived at 9 a.m. for the start of the session, which lasted about three hours.

Special Prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald has asked the grand jury investigating the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson to indict Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby and Bush’s Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice, lawyers close to the investigation tell RAW STORY.

Fitzgerald has also asked the jury to indict Libby on a second charge: knowingly outing a covert operative, the lawyers said. They said the prosecutor believes that Libby violated a 1982 law that made it illegal to unmask an undercover CIA agent.

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Those close to the investigation said Rove was offered a deal Tuesday to plead guilty to perjury for a reduced charge. Rove’s lawyer was told that Fitzgerald would drop an obstruction of justice charge if his client agreed not to contest allegations of perjury, they said.

Rove declined to plead guilty to the reduced charge, the sources said, indicating through his attorney Robert Luskin that he intended to fight the charges. A call placed to Luskin was not returned.