February 6, 2007: Jury Hears Grand Jury Testimony, Hears Libby Testify to ‘Forgetting’ Being Told of Plame Wilson’s Identity by Cheney

Jurors in the Lewis Libby perjury trial (see January 16-23, 2007) hear six more hours of audio recordings of Libby’s 2003 and 2004 grand jury testimony (see March 5, 2004, March 24, 2004, and February 1-5, 2007). They spent all of yesterday listening to Libby’s testimony from the same audio recordings (see February 5, 2007). Today, jurors hear Libby acknowledging that he originally learned of Valerie Plame Wilson’s CIA identity from his then-boss, Vice President Dick Cheney (see (June 12, 2003)). But, Libby said, he “forgot” that he had learned that information from Cheney, so when he heard it a second time from NBC News bureau chief Tim Russert (see July 10 or 11, 2003), he thought that he was hearing it for the first time. According to Libby, Russert asked him in July 2003, “Did you know that [former] ambassador [Joseph] Wilson’s wife works at the CIA?” Libby added: “And I was a little taken aback by that. I remember being taken aback by it.” Libby’s testimony conflicts with testimony given by many other witnesses, who say Libby discussed Wilson’s wife with them before the stated date of the Libby-Russert conversation. In his grand jury testimony, Russert said he didn’t recall Plame Wilson’s name coming up at all in his conversation with Libby (see February 7-8, 2007). In other portions of the audio tapes, Libby is heard repeatedly claiming that he cannot remember details of conversations other officials have said they had with him. [FireDogLake, 2/5/2007; FireDogLake, 2/6/2007; FireDogLake, 2/6/2007; FireDogLake, 2/6/2007; FireDogLake, 2/6/2007; MSNBC, 2/21/2007; BBC, 7/3/2007] Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald says of Libby’s claimed memory lapse, “You can’t be startled about something on Thursday [July 10] that you told other people about on Monday [July 7] and Tuesday [July 8].” Fitzgerald is referring to Libby’s disclosure of Plame Wilson’s identity to reporter Judith Miller (see 8:30 a.m. July 8, 2003). [FireDogLake, 2/5/2007; National Journal, 2/19/2007] Jurors are able to follow the audiotapes with printed copies of Libby’s testimony as well as from a display on a large television monitor. [CBS News, 1/25/2007; FireDogLake, 2/5/2007] The grand jury replay will conclude tomorrow morning (see February 7, 2007).