Quick update from NRO The Corner:
We now know the three questions the jury sent to the judge yesterday. This is a verbatim typed version of the foreman's handwritten note:
All three questions below relate to Count 3 (pages 74 & 75)
#1 Is the prosecution alleging that Mr. Libby did not make the statement to Cooper as presented to us in the indictment OR is the allegation that Libby did now Mrs. Wilson worked for the CIA when he spoke to the FBI on 10/14/03 or 11/26/03?
#2 Is the prosecution's allegation in Count 3, that Mr. Libby DID know that Mr. Wilson's wife worked for the CIA when he made statements to the FBI on 10/14/03 or 11/26/03 (pages 74/75Â…."that Mr. Libby did not know if this was true."
#3 In determining Count 3, are we allowed to consider Mr. Libby's grand jury testimony?
This is the part of the jury instructions — pages 74-75 — that is hanging up the jury:
Count three of the indictment alleges that Mr. Libby falsely told the FBI on October 14 or November 16, 2003, that during a conversation with Matthew Cooper of Time magazine on July 12, 2003, Mr. Libby told Mr. Cooper that reporters were telling the administration that Mr. Wilson's wife worked for the CIA, but that Mr. Libby did not know if this was true.
It's easy to criticize the jury — they can seem easily confused — but the problem here is not the jury. It is the charge. This is the entirety of Count 3 (and Count 5, as well): Libby testified that he told Cooper that reporters were telling him, Libby, that Valerie Plame Wilson worked for the CIA, but that he, Libby, did not know if it was true. Cooper testified that Libby did not say that.
There are no notes, no recordings, no records, no nothing to support either man's story. Just Libby's testimony versus Cooper's testimony. And prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has asked the jury to convict Libby of a felony, one that carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, on that astonishingly flimsy allegation. No wonder the jury is confused. |