Woodward, Novak testify in Libby perjury trial

WASHINGTON - Some of the nation's best-known journalists testified Monday about news leaks in the Bush administration as attorneys for I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby tried to cast the former White House aide as a scapegoat in the CIA case.

Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, is accused of lying and obstructing the investigation into the 2003 leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity.

Using reporters as their first batch of witnesses, Libby's attorneys tried to show that the administration was leaking from several sources. And when Libby had the opportunity to leak himself, they said, he did not.

Washington Post reporter Walter Pincus testified he learned about Plame, the wife of former ambassador and prominent war critic Joseph Wilson, from White House press secretary Ari Fleischer. The Post's Bob Woodward and syndicated columnist Robert Novak testified they heard it from Deputy State Department Secretary Richard Armitage.

As for Libby, both Novak and New York Times reporter David Sanger testified that they separately interviewed him and that he never discussed Plame.

"I believe you're the third Pulitzer prize winner to testify this morning," Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald quipped when he began questioning Sanger.

Fitzgerald says Libby learned Plame's identity from Cheney and other officials, then discussed it with New York Times reporter Judith Miller and Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper. Libby says he never revealed it to Miller and says he only told Cooper what he had heard from another reporter, NBC's Tim Russert.

White House scapegoat?
Libby is not charged with the leak, but Fitzgerald says he lied because he feared prosecution and losing his job.

FREE VIDEO Cheney dominates Libby trial Feb. 12: The vice president is dominating the trial of his former chief of staff.  Countdown host Keith Olbermann discusses with MSNBC's David Shuster. Countdown

Defense attorneys say Libby had no reason to lie. Why, they ask, would he out Plame to Miller and not take the opportunity to do the same in interviews with Sanger and Novak?

Attorneys have suggested to jurors that Libby is being treated unfairly. Fleischer received immunity from prosecution in exchange for cooperating with authorities and Armitage was never prosecuted.

Woodward's testimony provided Libby's attorneys a victory in making that argument. They persuaded a judge to let them play a one-minute excerpt of Woodward's taped interview with Armitage. In it, Woodward asks about a CIA fact-finding mission that Wilson says helped him debunk prewar intelligence on Iraq.

"Why would they send him?" Woodward asked.

"Because his wife's a (expletive) analyst at the agency," Armitage replied.

"It's still weird," Woodward said.

"It's perfect. That's what she does. She is a WMD analyst," Armitage said.

Defense attorneys want to show that if there was a concerted effort to out Plame, Libby wasn't part of it. They have also told jurors that members of the administration made Libby the scapegoat for top Bush adviser Karl Rove, who was a second source for Novak's column.

"I wouldn't call him a good friend. I would call him a very good source," Novak said of Rove. "I talked to him two or three times a week at that point."

Libby was not a regular source and did not contribute to the Plame story, Novak said.

"I had no help and no confirmation from Mr. Libby on that issue," Novak said.

Mitchell testimony still possible
Defense lawyers also are fighting hard to force NBC foreign affairs reporter Andrea Mitchell to testify about why she said that Plame's identity was "widely known" even before the Novak column was published.

Mitchell has since recanted those comments and has said that she cannot explain them.

A key dispute in the case involves Mitchell's NBC colleague, Tim Russert. Libby says Russert told him in July 2003 that "all the reporters know" Plame worked for the CIA. Russert said that never happened because he didn't know who Plame was at the time.

Prosecutors say Libby concocted the Russert story to shield him from prosecution for discussing information he had learned through official government channels.

NBC VIDEO Reporters testify in CIA leak trial Feb. 12: Lawyers for Lewis "Scooter" Libby call five reporters to the witness stand Monday. NBC's Kelly O'Donnell reports. Nightly News

Libby's attorneys want to show that Russert had heard that Plame worked at the CIA. Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer has already testified that he told NBC reporter David Gregory about her. If Libby can show that Mitchell knew, too, they think they can persuade jurors to believe Libby's account of the Russert conversation.

Mitchell is challenging a subpoena to testify in the case, and U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton said Monday he would

permit the defense team to question Mitchell Tuesday, outside the presence of the jury.

This will allow her testimony to be in the court record and then the judge can rule on whether Mitchell would appear before the jury.

In addition to Mitchell, attorneys have said several other journalists are expected to testify this week: New York Times managing editor Jill Abramson, Newsweek assistant managing editor Evan Thomas, and Glenn Kessler from the Washington Post.

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