Reporter: Not Sure Libby Perjurer

A federal indictment alleges that Vice President Cheney's now-former chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby committed perjury during, among other things, a conversation he had with Time magazine reporter Matt Cooper.

Cooper says he's not so sure.

Libby resigned Friday after he was indicted by a grand jury, accused of obstructing its two-year investigation of the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame and lying about an effort to blow Plame's cover.

Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald said the CIA leak investigation is substantially complete, though "it's not over."

Fitzgerald wouldn't comment about the possible involvement in the case of President Bush's closest adviser, Karl Rove, who remains under investigation.

CBS News chief White House correspondent John Roberts reports that Fitzgerald wants to know why Rove didn't tell the grand jury about a telephone conversation with Cooper in which he identified Plame. Rove's legal team hopes to convince the prosecutor it was an honest omission.

Cooper writes his personal experience in the current issue of Time.

He told The Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith Monday that a conversation he had with Libby "was pretty short. I called him on July 12, 2003, just to set the scene a little bit.

"Ambassador Joseph Wilson had just written his now-famous op-ed piece criticizing the Bush administration, saying there had not been an effort by Saddam Hussein to buy uranium in Africa. And the administration was pushing back against Wilson.

"I was one of a number of Time reporters working on a big cover story that week, and I was trying to get in touch with Mr. Libby over at the White House. And we finally hooked up on July 12th (2003). And we talked a bit on the record. We talked a bit off the record.

"And I had heard the day before from the president's political advisor, Karl Rove, that Wilson's wife might have played a role in dispatching him to Africa, and that she worked at the CIA.

"So I asked Libby if he had heard anything like that. And he said, 'Yeah, I've heard that, too.'"Cooper continued, "I guess the indictment alleges that he went on to qualify it and say that, 'I don't know if she works there. I've heard this from reporters' and a few other things that the prosecutor says constitutes perjury. I don't know if there was perjury here. I do know what he said to me."

Smith pointed out that the indictment apparently alleges that Libby told the FBI and the grand jury that it was reporters, "people like you (Cooper), presumably," who told him Plame's identity. "Could you discern that from your conversation," Smith asked Cooper, "That you suggested it, he confirms it?"

"Yeah," responded Cooper. "I suggested it. He confirmed it. But there was no suggestion, I guess as alleged in the indictment, that he went ahead and, you know, talked to me about how he heard it and such. So, I think you've got a situation where the prosecutor is accusing him of several cases of perjury and obstruction of justice, and you're going to have witnesses or the people who work most closely with Libby in the White House and, potentially, reporters testifying in this case."

Cooper added there's "no question" the vice president's office was trying to damage Wilson's credibility, though he's not sure Cheney's office was waging a campaign to out Plame.

"There's no question," Cooper says, "that they were very angry at Wilson that week, and there was a big effort to kind of push back against him and discredit his trip and him. So, you know, that's the reason they were taking my calls."