9 women, 3 men to decide fate of Scooter Libby

updated 7:39 p.m. ET Jan. 22, 2007

WASHINGTON - A jury, consisting of nine women and three men, was seated Monday in the perjury and obstruction trial of Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.

Those jurors include an art historian, an investment banker, an attorney, a retired postal employee, a retired math teacher, and  a former reporter for the Washington Post who once had star reporter Bob Woodward as his editor and was a neighbor of NBC News Washington Bureau Chief Tim Russert - both of whom are to be witnesses in the case.

(MSNBC.com is owned, in part, by NBC News.)

The jury also includes four critics of the Bush administration's Iraq policies who expressed their views during questioning. Three women and one man were seated as alternates. Although the public knew who they are, the jurors weren't told which ones were alternates, so they would all pay full attention during the trial.

The process of selecting the jury took twice as long as expected.

Libby, a former aide to President Bush and chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, is the highest-ranking member of the Republican administration to face criminal charges in a case surrounding the leak of a CIA agent's name.. He is accused of lying to investigators about his conversations regarding outed CIA operative Valerie Plame, who husband was a vocal critic of the administration.

Opening statements are now expected to begin Tuesday, with Judge Reggie Walton delivering detailed instructions to the jury, spelling out the charges against Libby and that the burden of proof regarding the five charges in the indictment rests on the prosecution.

Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald then will make opening remarks laying out his case against Libby.  Fitzgerald plans to spend about 90-minutes setting the scene for the jury.

Libby's defense attorney Ted Wells will follow Fitzgerald, using some audio and visual props to bolster his case that Libby had no reason to lie to FBI investigators and a grand jury about how he learned and what he told three reporters about former CIA employee Valerie Plame.

Depending on how long Wells takes with his opening, the jury may hear their first witness Tuesday as well.

The politics of I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby
The contentious jury selection process foreshadows a heated trial set to the backdrop of the war in Iraq.

The potential jurors are drawn from a city where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than 9-to-1.

Prosecutors say Libby lied to investigators to spare him political embarrassment. Libby says he didn't lie but rather forgot details about his conversations because he preoccupied with national security issues.

While the painstaking selection of a jury closes, it may not be the end of disputes over how much jurors should hear about the Iraq war.

Libby's lawyers, Theodore Wells and William Jeffress, have labored to keep opponents of the Iraq war and the administration off the jury. Libby, a former aide to President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, is the highest-ranking member of the current Republican administration to face criminal charges.

Defense lawyers asked every juror whether the administration lied about intelligence to push the nation into war in Iraq and whether administration officials are believable, particularly Cheney. He is to be a defense witness.

Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald objected repeatedly during the first three days that Wells and Jeffress were portraying this as a trial about politics and the war. Fitzgerald argued that "the jury will not be asked to render a verdict on the war or what they think of the war."

Defense questions were so political that one juror even volunteered that she had voted for Bush, Fitzgerald complained to the judge.

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