Courtroom Diary: Scooter Libby trial update

Kim Pearson — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 08:44:42 -0600

Editor's note: Join Professor Kim for a Second Life chat about the Scooter Libby trial this evening. More here.

Defense lawyers for I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby began presenting their case yesterday with a parade of witnesses that included columnist Robert Novak, and Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Walter Pincus. Libby is charged with perjury and obstruction of justice for allegedly lying to the FBI and a grand jury about his disclosure of the identity of CIA staffer Valerie Plame to journalists.

I was in the media room at the Prettyman Court House yesterday, live-blogging along side emptywheel from Firedoglake, Clarice from Just One Minute (whose been invaluable in helping a newbie get settled) and Jeralyn from TalkLeft, who was blogging at Huffington Post .

The most interesting news items from the dayâ€™s testimony were Walter Pincusâ€™ testimony that he first learned about Valerie Plame from former Bush Administration aide Ari Fleischer, contradicting Fleischerâ€™s testimony. Bob Woodward said he learned about Plame from former State Department official Richard Armitage, who seemed most concerned about making sure his agency didnâ€™t get blamed for faulty pre-war intelligence on Iraq. Novak also learned about Libby from Armitage, and got confirmation from Rove. These and other reporters questioned said they spoke to Libby around the same time, but donâ€™t remember him saying anything about Plame.

The most important legal debate yesterday was over the defenseâ€™s contention that it should be allowed to use its â€œmemory defenseâ€ -- that any false statements by Libby were the result of his state of mind at the time of his testimony. The judge and prosecution said they assumed that the defense would call Libby to testify as to his state of mind â€“ a move that would open him to cross-examination. The defense contends that it should be allowed to present evidence on Libbyâ€™s mental state whether or not he testifies.

This morningâ€™s legal debate concerns what the legal teams should be allowed to say about the details of Valerie Plameâ€™s employment status. Later, NBC news reporter Andrea Mitchell is expected to testify without the jury present to give the defense an opportunity to prove to the judge that her involvement in the Iraq pre-war intelligence story has a bearing on the credibility of Tim Russertâ€™s testimonyy last week.

Iâ€™ve recorded more thoughts about yesterdayâ€™s testimony in a video diary that I recorded this morning, but Iâ€™m having trouble uploading it. Iâ€™ll post a link as soon as I get it up.

BlogHer - Courtroom Diary: Scooter Libby trial update - Comments

Courtroom Diary: Scooter Libby trial update