[Fitz hammers Libby pretty hard here, and finally gets him to say he may have told Kessler]
Now look, it goes on for four pages, the reason I put it there is because it's not easy, to go under GJ testimony. He didn't get the basic facts wrong, he had a clear memory, which witness came here that didn't get something wrong? What witness?
One more thing I want to say, remember I put up public officials. We don't contend that those people did anything was wrong. They didn't know she was covert, any more than Libby did. You heard the tape, did he sound like somebody who was leaking a covert agent's identity. We do not contend that those people did anything wrong.
Let me deal with motive. What govt says is that Libby thought he could be prosecuted for a crime in exposing identity of covert agent. But you know he didn't do that. I put into evidence the statute of the law that punishes the people who disclose agent's identity. That only punishes you if CIA takign active measures to protect identity of agent.
L&G What do you know if CIA was taking active measures? The fact of the matters it that all of these conversations, people will come in and testify, not a one of them has come in here and said to you, I knew she was covert. [How about Libby and the "hush hus"?]
Now the govt [laughs] You heard Libby say what he thought about whether Mrs Wilson was covert. He was asked if he had any sense that he might compromise identity of covert agent. [goes through a few incidences where Libby says a lot of people work at CIA, and they don't tell anyone that they're covert]
Where's the evidence to say that this person couldnt be someone he could play softball with or football. Oh, well softball.
It's a newspaper article, Zeidenberg put it up here and was reading it as if it were true. You can't take anything that's in these newspaper articles and assume it's true. Some journalists maybe think you could. We put up at least three articles. This one says, Novak's disclosure hardly a secret, Wilson not an agent in field,
It remains far from clear that a law was violated. [goes through Nat Review article]
Could you bring up Novak's article? Novak's article itself. Novak reports that CIA says its CPD people selected Wilson and asked wife to contact him. It's a very important thing, I don't mean to demean it at all. When we have a true covert agent who risks their life by doing clandestine stuff overseas. But that's not what Ms Wilson was [pause] as far as Mr Libby knows.
They're saying Libby would lose his job. Have you heard any evidence that anyone lost his job? Rove? Armitage? L&G, that's a theory searching for evidence. You didn't hear one word, not from anybody in the case, that Libby had any concern about security clearance. [I believe that's not true] He certainly wasn't going to lose a clearance for anything that he did.
Let me turn to the reporters, I'm going to start with Judy Miller [I'm sure you are]
Libby says he did say something to Miller, but he said it came up on July 12. He did not recall saying anything on July 8. He wasn't asked about June 23 meeting.
2:21pm ET
One more thing I want to say, remember I put up public officials. We don't contend that those people did anything was wrong. They didn't know she was covert, any more than Libby did. You heard the tape, did he sound like somebody who was leaking a covert agent's identity. We do not contend that those people did anything wrong.
Let me deal with motive. What govt says is that Libby thought he could be prosecuted for a crime in exposing identity of covert agent. But you know he didn't do that. I put into evidence the statute of the law that punishes the people who disclose agent's identity. That only punishes you if CIA takign active measures to protect identity of agent.
L&G What do you know if CIA was taking active measures? The fact of the matters it that all of these conversations, people will come in and testify, not a one of them has come in here and said to you, I knew she was covert. [How about Libby and the "hush hus"?]
Now the govt [laughs] You heard Libby say what he thought about whether Mrs Wilson was covert. He was asked if he had any sense that he might compromise identity of covert agent. [goes through a few incidences where Libby says a lot of people work at CIA, and they don't tell anyone that they're covert]
Where's the evidence to say that this person couldnt be someone he could play softball with or football. Oh, well softball.
It's a newspaper article, Zeidenberg put it up here and was reading it as if it were true. You can't take anything that's in these newspaper articles and assume it's true. Some journalists maybe think you could. We put up at least three articles. This one says, Novak's disclosure hardly a secret, Wilson not an agent in field,
It remains far from clear that a law was violated. [goes through Nat Review article]
Could you bring up Novak's article? Novak's article itself. Novak reports that CIA says its CPD people selected Wilson and asked wife to contact him. It's a very important thing, I don't mean to demean it at all. When we have a true covert agent who risks their life by doing clandestine stuff overseas. But that's not what Ms Wilson was [pause] as far as Mr Libby knows.
They're saying Libby would lose his job. Have you heard any evidence that anyone lost his job? Rove? Armitage? L&G, that's a theory searching for evidence. You didn't hear one word, not from anybody in the case, that Libby had any concern about security clearance. [I believe that's not true] He certainly wasn't going to lose a clearance for anything that he did.
Let me turn to the reporters, I'm going to start with Judy Miller [I'm sure you are]
Libby says he did say something to Miller, but he said it came up on July 12. He did not recall saying anything on July 8. He wasn't asked about June 23 meeting.
2:21pm ET
Libby said he recollected a meeting several weeks early, He was simply not asked. But Ms MIller, after spending 85 days in jail, having plenty of time to think about it, having plenty of time to think about it. She comes to GJ, and says, she has no memory of meeting with Libby concerning 16 words prior to July 8. She says that under oath.
This a case about memory.
Miller then comes in, to testify to you, three weeks ago. She had an AMAZING recovery. She told you she not only remembers meeting. She says she remembers in detail.
[goes through testimony]
[goes through testimony]
All of a sudden, she looks and notes and she can tell you that Libby was pissed about a war of leaks. Pretty amazing, a person testifying about this after not remembering for two years.
Libby has no notes. He has exactly one note. The one he brought to FBI. He's got no notes about the July 8 conversation or anything else. Miller says he did mention wife, because she's got this comment in parentheses, she says she took it to be nonproliferation, I showed here there's not one at CIA. Miller told you that she uses parens to mean something the source said, or that she wanted to ask someone about. Before she every met with Scooter Libby, she had Wilson's phone number. [Jeffress gets close to misrepresentation here, saying she talked to a lot of people, pause, before she ever talked to Libby] Where'd she get this extension, and what does she learn. Well, she's got a bit of a memory problem.
Libby has no notes. He has exactly one note. The one he brought to FBI. He's got no notes about the July 8 conversation or anything else. Miller says he did mention wife, because she's got this comment in parentheses, she says she took it to be nonproliferation, I showed here there's not one at CIA. Miller told you that she uses parens to mean something the source said, or that she wanted to ask someone about. Before she every met with Scooter Libby, she had Wilson's phone number. [Jeffress gets close to misrepresentation here, saying she talked to a lot of people, pause, before she ever talked to Libby] Where'd she get this extension, and what does she learn. Well, she's got a bit of a memory problem.
L&G, she doesn't know. She's reconstructing.
Let's go to the meeting on July 8. Zeidenberg points out correctly that this is a 2 hour meeting, that LIbby, busy as he is, things of enormous importance to the country, of enormous importance to him.
Well, yes he does, bc his boss told him to do it. [doesn't that make it important?]
He had to go and defend his boss, defend the credibility of the Pres and VP. L&G I 'm sure I don't have to point this out again, Libby had a job to do, and he did it. He's an honest man, not a dishonest man.
I told you Miller has a bit of a memory problem. I played a clip, she was just speaking natureally about her memory.
[no sound for anyone.]
2:28pm ET
Well, yes he does, bc his boss told him to do it. [doesn't that make it important?]
He had to go and defend his boss, defend the credibility of the Pres and VP. L&G I 'm sure I don't have to point this out again, Libby had a job to do, and he did it. He's an honest man, not a dishonest man.
I told you Miller has a bit of a memory problem. I played a clip, she was just speaking natureally about her memory.
[no sound for anyone.]
2:28pm ET
[Clip of Judy being Judy, which actually works well to slam her credibility]
I played another video in which she said she had a conversation with senior and not so senior officials.
I don't remember whether senior or not so senior, no reference in notebooks, no independent memory of them. She told you memory of a lot of other officials.
[Jeffress picks up one of the funniest quotes from Judy from her testimony, where she stops mid-line to say she can't remember when she started to talk to people]
She says she's pretty certain Libby not a source [also not quite true]
She either can't or won't say the name of any other source.
She won't tell you names of the other people.
In 2004, you heard Miller tell you, she and her lawyers had made a deal with Fitzgerald. Then she goes to jail, there was an agreement, Defense didn't agree to that. We did ask her, who else did you talk to. "She spent 85 days in jail to avoid saying she doesn't remember. That's amazing."
Judith Miller, although none of the counts that remain, the allegations concern Russert and Cooper, Miller is somebody that is still reliable to try to prove that story that Libby told. L&G In a case that requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt, Miller is not a reliable witness for that fact.
Let me digress before I talk about Cooper. Let me talk about when he claimed that Libby and others were disparaging Wilson. Where have we hard, anywhere, where have we heard that Libby disparaged Wilson. You'll remember that Wilson source for Kristof. June 13, a second article. Here's what Wilson was saying.
[going through what Wilson "said" in the Kristof articles. some impatience in the media room]
[Jeffress is running out of time]
You've seen talking points where Libby trying to get the facts out about what Wilson says. Not a one, not a one, mentions anything about Wilson's wife. These are the facts. That's disparagement of Wilson? But that's what Cooper says.
Let's turn to this conversation on July 12. This is the first chance Libby gets to call Cooper back. Cooper sprawled on bed. Taking notes on laptop. When Libby iasked about conversatoin 3 months after it occured. He says he did say something. He says he volunteered info. Cooper says he asked Libby. That sounds very much like what LIbby recalls Russert saying. Could he have been recollecting Russert? That's not how he could be wrong. L&G Here's why the govt asked. To convict Libby of three different crimes, perjury, false statements, and part of obstruction charge.
Has slide up, comparing the narrow line of the question.
2:40 pm ET
I don't remember whether senior or not so senior, no reference in notebooks, no independent memory of them. She told you memory of a lot of other officials.
[Jeffress picks up one of the funniest quotes from Judy from her testimony, where she stops mid-line to say she can't remember when she started to talk to people]
She says she's pretty certain Libby not a source [also not quite true]
She either can't or won't say the name of any other source.
She won't tell you names of the other people.
In 2004, you heard Miller tell you, she and her lawyers had made a deal with Fitzgerald. Then she goes to jail, there was an agreement, Defense didn't agree to that. We did ask her, who else did you talk to. "She spent 85 days in jail to avoid saying she doesn't remember. That's amazing."
Judith Miller, although none of the counts that remain, the allegations concern Russert and Cooper, Miller is somebody that is still reliable to try to prove that story that Libby told. L&G In a case that requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt, Miller is not a reliable witness for that fact.
Let me digress before I talk about Cooper. Let me talk about when he claimed that Libby and others were disparaging Wilson. Where have we hard, anywhere, where have we heard that Libby disparaged Wilson. You'll remember that Wilson source for Kristof. June 13, a second article. Here's what Wilson was saying.
[going through what Wilson "said" in the Kristof articles. some impatience in the media room]
[Jeffress is running out of time]
You've seen talking points where Libby trying to get the facts out about what Wilson says. Not a one, not a one, mentions anything about Wilson's wife. These are the facts. That's disparagement of Wilson? But that's what Cooper says.
Let's turn to this conversation on July 12. This is the first chance Libby gets to call Cooper back. Cooper sprawled on bed. Taking notes on laptop. When Libby iasked about conversatoin 3 months after it occured. He says he did say something. He says he volunteered info. Cooper says he asked Libby. That sounds very much like what LIbby recalls Russert saying. Could he have been recollecting Russert? That's not how he could be wrong. L&G Here's why the govt asked. To convict Libby of three different crimes, perjury, false statements, and part of obstruction charge.
Has slide up, comparing the narrow line of the question.
2:40 pm ET
More on Wells' closing arguments.
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