LOS ANGELES  John McTiernan, facing an expected new indictment for his role in the Anthony Pellicano Hollywood wiretapping case, is striking back  with a movie.

In an extraordinary and somewhat startling challenge to officials who have threatened him with jail time for lying to an F.B.I. agent, Mr. McTiernan, perhaps best known as the director of “Die Hard” and “The Hunt for Red October,” has completed a documentary that accuses the Bush administration of having pursued the Pellicano case as part of a far-ranging conspiracy under the direction of Karl Rove to prosecute Democrats.

Mr. Pellicano, a former private investigator who served the rich and famous in Hollywood, was sentenced to 15 years in prison in December. Mr. McTiernan, who employed Mr. Pellicano in connection with a divorce, was earlier sentenced to four months in prison after pleading guilty to lying to a federal agent. But he withdrew his plea with a judge’s permission in February and is awaiting what federal prosecutors at the time said would be a new indictment.

Meanwhile, Mr. McTiernan finished work last month on “The Political Prosecutions of Karl Rove,” a documentary that describes what it argues is a relentless legal pursuit of Democratic political operatives under the Bush administration, with the Pellicano case in a central role.