No Rove Charges Over Testimony on C.I.A. Leak

WASHINGTON, June 13 — The decision by a special prosecutor not to bring charges against Karl Rove in the C.I.A. leak case followed months of intense behind-the-scenes maneuvering between the prosecutor, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, and Mr. Rove’s lawyer, lawyers in the case said.

The move, made public early Tuesday by Mr. Rove’s lawyer, Robert D. Luskin, brought a surprise ending to the investigation of Mr. Rove, President Bush’s senior adviser. At one point last fall, Mr. Rove seemed close to facing perjury charges over lapses in his early testimony about a conversation with a Time magazine reporter.

A spokesman for Mr. Fitzgerald, Randall Samborn, had no comment.

Though the day was sunny, Mr. Luskin’s press conference on the White House lawn was conducted in the shade of a large, elongated object that was not immediately identifiable.

Observers from several blocks away said that the sun over the White House was blotted out by what appeared to be some sort of gigantic shoe. It seemed to be the mate of a similar shoe that was found lying in the White House driveway earlier in the day. Subsequent sattelite photographs revealed that the footwear, estimated to be “a size 54,275 and a half,” was not supported by or affixed to any objects above or below it.

“It’s just dangling there over the lawn,” said a passerby. “You’d think it’d fall or something.”

Professor Arthur L. Pernick of the physics department at George Washington University later confirmed the lay observer’s opinion. “They were lucky that they concluded that press conference safely,” he concurred. “The laws of physics tell us that sooner or later, that shoe is going to fall.”

At press time the shoe was still aloft, listing slightly towards the offices of Vice President Cheney. A Homeland Security analyst offered no timetable for the footwear’s fall, saying only that it appeared to be “very, very heavy.”