Novakula Spins The Libby Verdict

In today’s Bucks County Courier Times, Robert Novak blames the jury in the “Scooter” Libby case (and by the way, I’m sure Libby just loves the fact that he has been tarred with this dippy nickname by the head of an administration that may end up sending him to jail for a spell, barring a successful appeal or a pardon of course, which Novak also argues for here)…

While my column on Wilson’s mission triggered Libby’s misery, I played but a minor role in his trial. Subpoenaed by his defense team, I testified that I had phoned him in reporting the Wilson column and that he had said nothing about Wilson’s wife. Other journalists said the same thing under oath, but we apparently made no impression on the jury.

(Novak states in the column that he learned about Valerie Plame from Richard Armitage, with Novak alleging that Patrick Fitzgerald, the prosecutor in the trial, already knew that. And as I've said before, I think the fact that Armitage, formerly of the State Department, knew this - assuming that's true, of course - doesn't say much about how Bushco treats the identity of its spies...I mean, it bungles everything else, so why should this be different?)

The issue of what Libby told the journalists isn’t the most important one here, actually. The issue of what Libby was told for the journalists (and more importantly, by whom) is the most important. And this is where Libby slipped up the most, as noted here.

(Denis) Collins, a journalist who has written for The Washington Post and other newspapers -- and is author of the 2004 book, "Spying: The Secret History of History" -- described the jury's painstaking deliberations. He said there were several "managerial types" on the jury and they spent many days just assembling post-it notes in some kind or "buildings blocks" fashion. They did not take an immediately straw vote.

"What we came up with from that," he said, "was that Libby was told about Mrs. Wilson [Valerie Plame] nine times" in that time period. "We believed he DID have a bad memory," he said, "but it seemed very unlikely he would not remember about being told about Mrs. Wilson" so many times. ... Hard to believe he would remember on Tuesday and forget on Thursday," and so on.

He said they failed to convict Libby on the Matt Cooper charge, feeling it was pretty much one man's word against the others, especially since Cooper had no notes.

He said that politics played no role in the verdict, and claimed most jurors didn't know how others felt politically.

"The primary thing which convinced us on most of the accounts was the conversation ... the alleged conversation ... with Tim Russert," he said.

And as this Source Watch link notes, Libby testified that he was told about Valerie Plame by Tim Russert, with Russert testifying under oath that he didn’t tell Libby.

That is a big reason why Libby was convicted, Novak. The jury on this trial was pretty smart; don’t try to imply that they were stupid.

And speaking of right-wing hacks (which Novak is first and foremost even though he does a bit of homework on his stories from time to time), concerning the Libby case, the only thing here that is “smelly” is the notion that Fox has any disposition towards legitimate journalism at all, and that goes for John (“Barack Obama Attended A Terrorist Madrassa”) Gibson in a big way (Gibson also alleges that Denis Collins was some sort of a “plant” on Libby’s jury…too funny).