Fitzgerald has indicted Libby for obstructing justice, two counts of perjury, and two counts of lying to prosecutors. In the indictment, he also lays out the case for a violation of the 1917 Espionage Act and/or other statutes dealing with classified information, but he stops short of charging Libby. Why?
It boils down to his baseball analogy. For Fitzgerald, there is no doubt that the outing of Valerie Plame caused serious damage to national security. The batter got beaned, but was it through "inadvertence, recklessness, or maliciousness?" Once Fitzgerald answers this question, Fitzgerald will decide who gets charged with what.
If it was through inadvertence or incompetence, no crime was committed beyond Libby's fabrications. We just have idiots in the White House and Libby should have told the truth. They would have looked foolish, but the secrecy of the Grand Jury would have kept most of the details out of the public eye.
If it was through recklessness, then "Title 18, United States Code, Section 793, and Executive Order 12958 (as modified by Executive Order 13292), not to disclose classified information to persons not authorized to receive such information, and otherwise to exercise proper care to safeguard classified information against unauthorized disclosure" applies. Libby's lying makes a lot more sense since these are serious crimes and the White House would have been damaged and it looks like multiple members of the White House would have been on the hook.
If it was through maliciousness, Libby had to lie since the outing would have kicked in the 1917 Espionage Act and that would bring down the White House and everyone involved in the leak.
I think this is Fitzgerald's opening salvo. He's saying: This is what I've got! You want a piece of this! You really want to mess with me.
Who is Fitzgerald talking to? Everyone in the White House who has been having problems recollecting anything that contradicts Libby's fairy tale. I think he is telling everyone involved that they are looking at the same charges if they don't come clean in a hurry. Fitzgerald wants an answer to the "inadvertence, recklessness, and maliciousness" question. He knows classified inofrmation was released. He knows damage was done. He knows who did it and who helped. The only question is one of intent/state of mind.
Fitzgerald didn't charge under the espionage act, but I thought it was interesting that he connected Libby's obstruction with the 1917 Espionage act without much prodding during the press conference. I thought that was telling. He also made a point of opening by saying national security had been hurt and that Official A was Novak's source. The last time he used "official A" was to refer to an unindicted Gov. Ryan of IL. It took a year after his initial indictment to indict Ryan.
This is the beginning of the public story and Fitzgerald has only shown a couple of cards and they are aces. I can't wait to see the rest of his hand.