Leak Probe Cliffhanger Continues

(CBS/AP)  Washington remains abuzz over possible indictments in the CIA leak investigation led by Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, with the term of the grand jury set to expire Friday.

The White House has braced for the possibility that Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, and President Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove, could face charges.

CBS News correspondent Bill Plante reports the tension at the White House continues to escalate.

In public, at least, the president is ignoring the investigation and his spokesman says people here are too busy doing their jobs to care.

"We're continuing to focus on what the American people care most about. Those are the things that we can do something about," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Wednesday. "We obviously continue to follow developments in the news."

Libby and Rove arrived for work at the White House Thursday as usual. Rove attended the daily meeting of the senior staff, but Libby did not and was said to be in a security briefing. Libby misses senior staff about half the time because of intelligence briefings and other issues on Cheney's schedule, an official said.

Rove's legal team made contingency plans, consulting with former Justice Department official Mark Corallo about what defenses could be mounted in court and in public.

Fitzgerald met with Rove attorney Robert Luskin at a private law firm office Tuesday, heightening White House fears for Rove's future.

On Wednesday, Fitzgerald had a confidential lunchtime meeting with a federal judge after a grand jury listened to three hours of testimony in the case.

The administrative assistant to Thomas Hogan, the chief judge of U.S. District Court in the nation's capital, confirmed Hogan's meeting with Fitzgerald. The assistant, Sheldon Snook, declined to comment on what was discussed.

CBS News chief White House correspondent John Roberts reports that Fitzgerald was not asking for a grand jury extension during his meeting with the federal judge, leaving people to wonder whether he was seeking sealed indictments, or something else.

No witnesses were seen going into the grand jury area, only Fitzgerald and his deputies.

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