Leak charges could come today

WASHINGTON – The prosecutor in the CIA leak case was preparing to outline possible charges before a federal grand jury as early as today, even as the FBI conducted last-minute interviews in the high-profile investigation, according to people familiar with the case.

Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald was seen in Washington Tuesday with lawyers in the case, and some White House officials braced for at least one indictment when the grand jury meets today. I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, is said by several people in the case to be a main focus, but not the only one.

In a possible sign that Fitzgerald may charge one or more officials with illegally disclosing Valerie Plame’s CIA affiliation, FBI agents as recently as Monday night interviewed at least two people in her D.C. neighborhood to determine whether they knew she worked for the CIA before she was unmasked with the help of senior Bush administration officials. Two neighbors told the FBI they were shocked to learn she was a CIA operative.

The FBI interviews suggested the prosecutor wanted to show that Plame’s status was covert, and that there was damage from the revelation that she worked at the CIA.

News of the 11th-hour moves came on the same day that Cheney himself was implicated in the chain of events that led to Plame’s being revealed. In a New York Times report that the White House pointedly did not dispute, Fitzgerald was said to have notes taken by Libby showing he learned about Plame from the vice president a month before she was identified by the columnist Robert Novak.

There is no indication Cheney did anything illegal or improper, but this is the first evidence to surface that shows he knew of Plame well before she became a household name.

Fitzgerald’s investigation has centered on whether senior administration officials knowingly revealed Plame’s identity in an effort to discredit a Bush administration critic – her husband, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV. On July 6, 2003, Wilson accused the administration in the Washington Post and the Times of using flawed intelligence to justify the war with Iraq. Eight days later, Novak revealed Plame’s name and her identity as a CIA operative.

Officials described a White House on edge. “Everybody just wants this week over,” said one official.

The key figures in the probe, including Deputy White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove and Libby, attended staff meetings and planned President Bush’s next political and policy moves.