LIBBY V. ROVE; GREGORY AND RUSSERT

News out of the opening statements in Scooter Libby's trial: The defense is going to argue that in the fall of 2003, with the White House under pressure to come clean on its role in the leaking of Valerie Plame's identity the past summer, Libby was scapegoated in an effort to save Karl Rove, who, Libby's lawyer said, had pushed the story with reporters that summer. This is a very smart move on the part of Libby's defense, if for no other reason that it make Libby the victim of the one man who may be more intensely reviled than Libby's boss, Dick Cheney. It also complements the Libby defense's apparent intention to suggest that Libby was acting merely as a loyal subordinate to Cheney in taking on the job of responding to Joe Wilson's allegations in the press in July 2003 -- which in turn, they seem to be arguing, explains why Cheney and Libby together sought to get the White House in fall 2003 to put out the word that Libby was not involved in blowing Plame's cover. (These actions are going to be portrayed by Patrick Fitzgerald as part of an effort by Libby to save his job.)

The other big news is that former Press Secretary Ari Fleischer apparently told NBC News' David Gregory on July 11, 2003 that Plame worked at the CIA. Libby's defense will argue that the fact that Gregory knew -- a fact not previously publicly known -- makes it more likely that Gregory's colleague Tim Russert did indeed know about Plame and could have conveyed that information to Libby, as Libby originally testified. There are a couple of challenges this aspect of the defense might face. First, Fitzgerald has suggested the discussion between Libby and Russert took place on July 10, and if he can pin down that date, then it will not help Libby to show what Gregory learned on July 11. Second, Fitzgerald has framed the charges in such a way that even if Russert did tell Libby about Plame, Libby is still liable for testifying falsely when he said that he was surprised by the information, since he had been discussing Plame throughout the June-July period with numerous government officials and one reporter, including a couple of discussions days before Libby's conversation with Russert.

The second reason this news is significant: Fleischer is in fact a prosecution witness who has been immunized. It turns out he initially took the Fifth Amendment before agreeing to testify in exchange for immunity. That obviously provides an opening for the defense to impeach Fleischer's expected testimony that he learned of Plame from Libby on July 7, 2003, when Libby told him the information was "hush hush," and "on the q.t."

UPDATE:Apparently, Fitzgerald is putting on his first witness this afternoon, former Undersecretary of State Marc Grossman, who is set to testify that in early June 2003 he told Libby that Joe Wilson's wife was at the CIA and had been involved in Wilson's 2002 mission to Niger. Grossman will be the first of a succession of government officials -- at State, CIA, Office of the Vice President, and the White House -- who will testify that they either told Libby or were told by him about Plame's CIA employment in the month before Libby purportedly learned the information from Tim Russert (having forgotten, according to Libby, that Vice President Cheney had already told him that Plame worked in the Counterproliferation Division on the clandestine side of the Agency. Libby was compelled to tell the FBI about his June 2003 conversation with Cheney after finding that he had taken notes on what Cheney had told him).

--Jeff Lomonaco


[link to www.prospect.org]