Washington – Jurors deliberated Wednesday without reaching a verdict on whether former White House aide Lewis “Scooter” Libby obstructed the investigation into who leaked the identity of a CIA operative married to a prominent Iraq war critic.
The eight women and four men heard 14 days of testimony, a day of closing arguments and more than an hour of instructions from U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton. After 4 1/2 hours of deliberations, they went home and were to resume today.
The jurors include a former Washington Post reporter, an MIT-trained economist, a retired math teacher, a former museum curator, a law firm accountant, a Web architect and several retired or current federal workers. There are 10 whites and two blacks – unexpected in a city where blacks outnumber whites more than 2-to-1.
Libby, who was chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, faces five felony counts that carry a combined top penalty of 30 years in prison. If convicted, he probably would get far less.
The investigation began with the public identification of CIA operative Valerie Plame on July 14, 2003, eight days after her husband, ex-ambassador Joseph Wilson publicly accused the Bush administration of distorting intelligence to push the nation into war with Iraq.
Months later, Libby told the FBI and a grand jury that he first learned that Plame worked for the CIA from Cheney on June 11. But he said that amid the press of war issues and other national security concerns, he forgot that and was surprised to learn it from NBC reporter Tim Russert on July 10 or 11.
Thereafter, he said, he told reporters he had heard the information only from journalists and could not confirm it.
Russert testified that he and Libby never discussed Plame. Judith Miller, a former New York Times reporter, testified Libby told her about Plame’s CIA job before the Russert conversation. Six government officials testified they either told Libby about Plame’s job or discussed it with him between June 11 and July 10 or 11.
The defense argued Libby had an innocent lapse of memory, and his lawyer attempted to show that government witnesses also had memory flaws.
