Chicago Tribune

WASHINGTON – For the first time since he secured the indictment of a senior White House official three weeks ago in the CIA leak case, special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald said Friday he would present evidence to a new federal grand jury.

Fitzgerald’s latest statement set off a new round of speculation in Washington about whether he would seek charges against any other Bush administration officials, even though he had previously suggested he would “keep a grand jury available” for the case.

But it was impossible to know Friday whether Fitzgerald’s plans to present testimony to a second grand jury signaled potential new indictments, or even a revised case against Lewis “Scooter” Libby.

Libby, 55, was indicted Oct. 28 on charges of obstruction of justice, perjury and making false statements for allegedly lying about his role in leaking the identity in 2003 of CIA operative Valerie Plame. Her husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson, had become a high-profile critic of the administration’s stated rationale for the Iraq war.

Libby, who resigned as Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff moments after the indictment was handed up by a Washington grand jury, has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Fitzgerald, the U.S. attorney in Chicago and appointed special counsel in the CIA leak case, said in an affidavit filed Friday that the continuing investigation “will involve proceedings before a different grand jury than the grand jury which returned the indictment” against Libby.

The prosecutor’s deposition was in response to a challenge filed by two news organizations, Dow Jones Inc. and The Associated Press, which are trying to keep records in the case from being shielded from public view.

Fitzgerald’s statement that there “will” be proceedings before a new grand jury triggered renewed speculation for several reasons.

First, Fitzgerald is barred from using a new grand jury to continue investigating the existing charges against Libby. Second, he would have to use a new grand jury to bring charges against another defendant, because the term of the grand jury that indicted Libby expired last month and could not be renewed. And, third, Karl Rove, President Bush’s chief political adviser, remains under investigation, sources close to Rove acknowledged as recently as Friday.

Scott Mendeloff, a former top federal prosecutor in Chicago who is now a defense attorney, said there were numerous possibilities behind the statement in Fitzgerald’s affidavit.

Mendeloff said the new grand jurors may do little beyond wrapping up some investigative leftovers passed on by their predecessors.

But Mendeloff also said, “If one believes that the existing indictment (against Libby) doesn’t leave room for more charges, and that’s a big “if,’ then the necessary conclusion is they are using the grand jury to investigate someone else, such as Karl Rove.”

Three weeks ago, in the Washington press conference he held to announce the Libby indictment, Fitzgerald signaled that he would likely go to a new grand jury, but Friday’s statement seemed to be the most definitive to date.

“It’s routine in long investigations that you would have available a new grand jury if you needed to go back to them, and that’s nothing unusual,” Fitzgerald said at the time. He also said, “We’re not quite done. … You know, it’s very, very routine that you keep a grand jury available for what you might need.”

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AP-NY-11-18-05 2013EST

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