After thinking a bit more, and getting Lawrence O'Donnell's take on MSNBC and reading Steve Clemons' take I think the NYT leak has a slightly different significance.
The point probably isn't Libby and his lawyers signalling that Cheney's gonna take the fall. Quite possibly there's nothing that directly links Cheney to a criminal charge, although obviously we can't know that.
The real issue is that Cheney was at the center of this and knew all along what was going on (at least after the fact). Leaking this now is a way of softening the political blow, as even if Cheney's name isn't on the indictments it's going to be in them.
