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On [[October 28]], [[2005]], Libby resigned from his position in the White House. This followed immediately after he was indicted on five criminal felony charges including obstruction of justice, making false statements and perjury. Special Prosecutor Fitzgerald indicated that he considered the charges grave, as they represented a fundamental attack on the legal system. Also mentioned in the indictment, but not charged was was "Libby was obligated by applicable laws and regulations, including Title 18, United States Code, Section 793," which is the [[Espionage Act]]. {{ref|esp}}
Libby has not (to date) been charged with the crime of revealing the identity of a covert CIA officer; rather, all charges to date are for allegedly lying to investigators and to the grand jury and for obstructing justice - all of which are felony charges. Supporters have pointed to the lack of indictments on the underlying matter as vindication that no laws relating to the "outing" of a CIA agent were broken. Detractors have pointed out that Fitzgerald made an analogy at his press conference to someone having kicked sand in the umpire's eyes - making it difficult to see what happened. He made clear that in this instance he felt he was the equivalent of the umpire - and that Libby had (figuratively) kicked sand in his eyes - making it impossible (so far) for him to determine if there was evidence of such a crime having been committed in the first place.
Libby allegedly told investigators that he first heard of Plame's CIA employment as a rumor from journalist [[Tim Russert]]; or, alternatively, that he mistakenly thought Russert was his first source because he had forgotten a single prior notification; that he did not know whether this rumor was true; and that he told other reporters he did not know whether it was true. The indictments charge that these statements were false in that Libby had numerous conversations about Plame's CIA employment prior to speaking to Russert; Russert did not tell Libby about Plame's CIA employment; Libby knew for a certainty that Plame was employed by the CIA; and Libby told reporters that Plame worked for the CIA without any disclaimer that he did not know whether this was true or not. The 'false statements' charges stem from making these claims to the FBI, the 'perjury' charges from repeating them to the grand jury, and the 'obstruction' charge from the view that Libby made these statements in an effort to prevent the investigation from uncovering the truth.
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