February 12, 2007: Judge: If Libby Does Not Testify, Much of ‘Memory Defense’ Will Not Be Allowed

Judge Reggie Walton rules that if Lewis Libby does not testify on his own behalf during his perjury and obstruction trial, the defense will be prohibited from presenting some of its evidence and arguments about his poor memory accounting for his lies and misstatements (see January 31, 2006 and January 24, 2007). The defense protests, leading some court observers to speculate that Libby may indeed not testify, though defense lawyers say no decision has yet been made as to his potential testimony. [Marcy Wheeler, 2/12/2007; New York Sun, 2/13/2007; Washington Post, 2/13/2007; New York Times, 2/13/2007] Walton tells the defense that he feels he was misled, having been told all along that Libby would testify. “I didn’t think that was the landscape in which we were operating,” Walton says. The Washington Post calls Walton “irritated,” and the New York Times characterizes him as “annoyed.” [Marcy Wheeler, 2/12/2007; Washington Post, 2/13/2007; New York Times, 2/13/2007] Assistant prosecutor Debra Bonamici tells Walton that all of their filings regarding what classified information could be presented in open court were based on the assumption that Libby would testify: “The truth is we did assume that Libby was going to testify, and we did so because [the defense] asked us to assume that. Everything we did was based on the asumption and it would be fundamentally unfair to hold us to an agreement we made based on those assumptions.” [Marcy Wheeler, 2/12/2007] Walton says that unless Libby testifies, he does not plan to allow the defense to argue in its closing that the Valerie Plame Wilson issue was less important to Libby than other matters. Only Libby can testify to how important those issues were to him, Walton says. But, the Times writes, Libby’s lawyers do not want to expose him to cross-examination by prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald. John Cline, one of Libby’s lawyers, says he hopes to introduce evidence of Libby’s busy schedule through testimony of his former top aide, John Hannah (see February 13, 2007). [Marcy Wheeler, 2/12/2007; Marcy Wheeler, 2/12/2007; New York Times, 2/13/2007] Former federal prosecutor Joshua Berman, who has worked with both Fitzgerald and lead defense lawyer Theodore Wells, says Wells often waits until the last minute to decide which witnesses to call. “I’ve heard him say, ‘I often make the decision [to call a key witness] that morning,” Berman says, and adds that Wells has been “thinking about it every single morning and night since the trial began.” [USA Today, 2/12/2007]