I'm at the Libby trial again. The morning started with Ted Wells, Libby's attorney, continuing his cross-examination of Cathie Martin, who was Vice President Dick Cheney's chief PR aide. He asked her repeatedly about four sets of talking points that Cheney's office drew up during the controversy triggered by former Ambassador Joseph Wilson's charge that Cheney's office and the White House had manipulated the prewar intelligence. Did any of these sets mention Wilson's wife, he asked Martin several times. No, she replied. Did you make use of the fact that Valerie Wilson was a CIA employee during your effort to counter Wilson's criticism? No, she said.

Wells seems to be developing this argument: because the talking points developed by Cheney's office--with Libby's input--did not mention Valerie Wilson and her CIA connection, then Valerie Wilson's CIA link was an irrelevant or minor matter for Scooter Libby. Consequently, it would have been quite easy for him to forget about it and have no later recollection of ever having known anything about it.

This is a pretty slim argument. Not every leak is a talking point--especially one that might involve classified information. And Libby--in speaking to reporters--would hardly be limited by a set of talking points written by the press people in Cheney's office.

But why shouldn't Wells take a stab at such an argument? He's throwing everything he can at the jury. He also asked Martin a series of questions to point out that the White House--after Wilson went public with his charges--came to blame the CIA for the use of the Niger allegation in George W. Bush's January 2003 State of the Union speech. His point here: that there was bad blood between the White House and the CIA and that the CIA had motive to get Libby (perhaps by encouraging their past and present officials who are government witnesses to lie about Libby). Again, it's worth a shot, right?

The real action this morning, though, is waiting--waiting for Ari Fleischer to take the stand. He is expected to testify that he leaked information on Valerie Wilson to NBC News reporter David Gregory and that White House communications director Dan Bartlett was involved in this leak. He's up soon.

Posted by David Corn at January 29, 2007 11:29 AM