Libby's 'conspiracy theory' never took root in court

The "conspiracy theory" hinted at by former White House aide I. Lewis Libby's lawyers at the start of his trial "never really took root in court," notes an article in Friday's L.A. Times.

"In his opening statement three weeks ago in the federal perjury trial of I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby, defense lawyer Theodore V. Wells Jr. dropped a bombshell," Richard B. Schmitt writes. "In dramatic tones, Wells declared that Libby had been the victim of a White House conspiracy to make Libby the fall guy for the CIA leak scandal."

Schmitt reports that "when the jury begins deliberating the fate of the former vice presidential aide next week, it will have seen virtually no evidence to back up the provocative claim."

"The difference between what Wells promised and delivered, and how it will play with the 12-member panel, is just one of the wild cards as the trial winds up," Schmitt continues.

"Endelivered promises" by defense attorneys may sometimes "backfire," because, as one former US Attorney tells the L.A. Times, it can potentially provide "the government an opportunity during closing arguments to cast doubt on the entire defense case."

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Cheney, Libby won't testify at CIA leak trial

Vice President Dick Cheney will not testify as expected in the trial of his former chief of staff I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby, according to a report on MSNBC. CNN reports that Libby himself will not be testifying, either.

A snow storm shut down government agencies in Washington today, prompting the court to send the jury home early for the day. But before wrapping up all proceedings, Libby's lead counsel Theodore Wells announced that he had released the Vice President from being a witness.

Cheney’s testimony had been widely anticipated by followers of the trial.

Liveblogging the trial at Firedoglake, Marcy Wheeler, author of the recently published Anatomy of Deceit: How the Bush Administration Used the Media to Sell the Iraq War and Out a Spy (aka emptywheel) provides a "blogger's approximation" transcript.

"Prior to lunch I indicated to the court that I would be making recommendations to Libby with regards to the progress of his case," Wells told the courtroom, according to emptywheel. "Over the lunch hour Mr. Jeffress and I advised Cheney's lawyer."

"If we had called him he would have been available on Thursday," Wells reportedly continued. "We have released the vice president as a witness."

The two lawyers advised Libby to rest his case without testifying.

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Trial exposes White House crisis machine

WASHINGTON - David Addington, chief legal adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney, says he was taken aback when the White House started making public pronouncements about the CIA leak investigation.

In the fall of 2003, President Bush's press secretary was categorically denying that either Karl Rove or I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby was involved in exposing the identity of Valerie Plame, a CIA employee married to a critic of the war in Iraq.

"Why are you making these statements?" Addington asked White House communications director Dan Bartlett.

"Your boss is the one who wanted" them, Bartlett replied, referring to Cheney.

With that, "I shut up," Addington recalled recently for jurors in Libby's CIA leak trial, which begins its fourth week on Monday with Libby's lawyers calling their first witnesses.

So far, the testimony of Addington and other administration aides, along with documents and Libby's audiotaped grand jury testimony, have provided a rare glimpse of how the Bush White House scrambled to respond to a political crisis as it intersected a criminal investigation.

At the intersection was Cheney, along with Rove and Libby, who were working in the summer of 2003 to rebut claims by Plame's husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, that Bush had misled the nation about prewar intelligence on Iraq.

The White House denials on behalf of Rove and Libby came just before Rove secretly began acknowledging to the FBI that he had confirmed Plame's identity for conservative columnist Bob Novak, who first published her name and relationship to Wilson.

About the same time, Libby came under suspicion because NBC News Washington bureau chief Tim Russert had talked to the FBI, contradicting Libby's version of a conversation between the two men that would become the heart of the perjury and obstruction charges against Libby.

Bush and Cheney made a common mistake in their public handling of the Plame affair, says presidential scholar and University of Texas government professor Bruce Buchanan, who has watched Bush's career since his days as Texas governor.

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Tim Russert Contradicts Libby's Testimony

"Meet The Press" Anchor Tells Courtroom He Never Discussed CIA Operative With Former Cheney Aide

(CBS/AP) NBC newsman Tim Russert testified Wednesday he never discussed a CIA operative with vice presidential aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, contradicting Libby's version to a grand jury in the CIA leak investigation.

The testimony came as prosecutors prepared to rest their perjury case against Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff.

The courtroom testimony so far has provided a rare view inside a White House under fire during the lead-up to the war in Iraq, reports CBS News correspondent Gloria Borger. It's not pretty: top advisers squabbling in the West Wing, leaked secrets and faulty memories — all part of a full-blown damage control operation apparently led by the vice president himself.

Russert, the host of "Meet the Press," testified about a July 2003 phone call in which Libby complained about a colleague's coverage. Libby has said that, at the end of the call, Russert brought up war critic Joseph Wilson and mentioned that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA.

"That would be impossible," Russert testified Wednesday. "I didn't know who that person was until several days later."

That discrepancy is at the heart of Libby's perjury and obstruction trial. He is accused of lying to investigators about his conversations with reporters regarding Wilson's wife, CIA operative Valerie Plame.

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