February 8, 2007: Judge Refuses Defense Request to Play MSNBC Clip to Rebut Reporter’s Testimony

Judge Reggie Walton refuses to allow Lewis Libby’s lawyers to play clips from an MSNBC broadcast in an attempt to rebut testimony by NBC bureau chief Tim Russert (see February 7-8, 2007). Libby’s lawyers assert that Russert learned about covert CIA official Valerie Plame Wilson from NBC reporter Andrea Mitchell, an assertion Russert denies. Mitchell, appearing on the Don Imus radio and television show, said that she and other reporters knew Plame Wilson worked for the CIA, but later recanted that statement (see October 3, 2003). Libby’s defense team had asked to play the clip from the Imus show. Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald opposes the request, calling it hearsay evidence and saying: “We might as well take ‘Wigmore on Evidence’ and replace it with ‘Imus on Evidence,’” referring to a classic treatise on evidentiary law. “There’s no Imus exception to the hearsay rule. This has no business in a federal court.” [FireDogLake, 2/7/2007; FireDogLake, 2/7/2007; Associated Press, 2/9/2007] The Libby team intends to put Mitchell on the stand; criminal defense attorney Jeralyn Merritt, writing for the progressive blog TalkLeft, does not believe Walton will allow Mitchell to testify, writing that her testimony amounts to nothing more than one speculation piled atop another. “Juries aren’t supposed to pile inference upon inference in arriving at a conclusion,” she writes. [Jeralyn Merritt, 2/11/2007] Mitchell will not testify (see February 12, 2007).