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Cheney adviser resigns after indictment
(AP)
Updated: 2005-10-29 11:40

"In our system, each individual is presumed innocent and entitled to due process and a fair trial," the president said.

Vice President Dick Cheney makes remarks at a reception for former U.S. Rep. Mac Collins (R-GA), a candidate for Congress in Perry, Georgia, October 28, 2005.
Vice President Dick Cheney makes remarks at a reception for former U.S. Rep. Mac Collins (R-GA), a candidate for Congress in Perry, Georgia, October 28, 2005. [Reuters]
Fitzgerald's investigation is nearing an end, and the grand jury he used for the past two years expired Friday. But he said, "It's not over," declining to address Rove's fate. The prosecutor is still weighing whether to charge Bush's closest adviser with false statements, lawyers said.

Friday's charges stemmed from a two-year investigation into whether Rove, Libby or any other administration officials knowingly revealed Plame's identity in summer 2003 to punish her husband, Joseph Wilson, for his criticism of the Bush administration's use of prewar intelligence on Iraq.

In the end, like so many other Washington scandals, prosecutors zeroed in on an alleged cover-up.

Libby, 55, was charged with five felonies alleging obstruction of justice, perjury to a grand jury and making false statements to FBI agents. If convicted, he could face a maximum of 30 years in prison and $1.25 million in fines.

Fitzgerald suggested that proving Libby lied to the grand jury would be an easier case to make than showing he intentionally revealed a secret officer's cover. Specifically, the prosecutors alleged that Libby concocted a false story that he got Plame's name from reporters and passed it on to others when in fact he got the information from classified sources.

"Mr. Libby's story that he was at the tail end of a chain of phone calls, passing on from one reporter what he heard from another, was not true. It was false," the prosecutor said. "And he lied about it afterward, under oath, repeatedly."

Unlike figures in past scandals who resigned before they were criminally charged, Libby waited until moments after Friday's indictment before stepping down. He became the highest-ranking White House official to resign under indictment in the three decades since Vice President Spiro Agnew stepped down over a criminal case during the Watergate era.
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