Originally Posted by Time.com

Lewis Libby, chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, has been indicted on charges of obstruction of justice, perjury and making false statements by a federal grand jury investigating the leak of the identity of a covert CIA operative. Special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, who heads the two-year-old investigation, believes that Libby lied about how he learned—then shared with reporters—the identity of Valerie Plame, a covert CIA operative who is married to Joseph Wilson, a former diplomat who has been fiercely critical of the Bush Administration's claims about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. "Mr. Libby gave the FBI a compelling story," Fitzgerald said in a press conference. But that story "was not true. It was false ... and he lied about it afterwards, under oath and repeatedly."

Karl Rove, President George W. Bush's senior advisor and deputy chief of staff, was not indicted, but in a sign that Fitzgerald's two-year investigation is not yet over, Rove has been told that he remains under investigation. Libby submitted his resignation shortly after the indictment was announced, in accordance with a plan agreed to by Bush Administration officials weeks ago.

The indictment contains five counts against Libby—two for perjury, for allegedly lying in his testimony to the grand jury; two for making false statements to FBI investigators; and one for obstruction of justice, for allegedly impeding the grand jury’s investigation. If found guilty, Libby could face 30 years in prison and a fine of $1.25 million.

The indictment alleges that Libby made a "false, fictitious and fraudulent statement" when he was questioned by the FBI. It also says that he lied in his testimony to the grand jury. Specifically, he misrepresented his conversations with NBC's Tim Russert, TIME's Matt Cooper, and Judith Miller of the New York Times. He told the grand jury that Russert had asked him whether he knew Wilson's wife worked for the CIA and that he was surprised to learn this from Russert. According to the indictment, Libby did not in fact discuss this with Russert, and he already knew about the identity of Wilson's wife. The indictment also alleges that Libby lied in testifying that he told both Cooper and Miller that he had learned about Wilson's wife from other reporters. Miller served 85 days in jail for refusing to reveal her source, and, earlier this month, testified to the grand jury about her conversations with Libby only after he granted her a personal waiver.