Washington – A jury was selected Monday to weigh the fate of former White House aide Lewis “Scooter” Libby, who has been charged with obstructing a federal probe into the disclosure of a CIA operative’s identity.
Culminating four days of questioning that often exposed biases against the Bush administration, 12 jurors and four alternates were selected to hear the case of Libby, 56, the one-time chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney.
U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton set opening statements in the case for Monday; the trial is expected to last up to six weeks.
Libby is charged with lying to federal agents and a grand jury about conversations he had with journalists about CIA operative Valerie Plame before her identity surfaced in newspaper reports in July 2003. The journalists, several of whom are expected to testify at the trial, have told investigators that Libby leaked to them key details about Plame, who is married to a critic of the Bush administration. Libby has denied that he lied or obstructed justice.
The jury selection was extended an extra day in part by an effort by defense lawyers to identity critics of the Bush administration and its war policies because of fears they would be biased against a former senior administration official.
