TV reporter contradicts Libby in perjury trial

TV reporter contradicts Libby in perjury trial
By Caroline Daniel in Washington
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
Published: February 8 2007 02:25 | Last updated: February 8 2007 02:25



Tim Russert, host of NBC’s Meet the Press, on Wednesday became the latest witness in the perjury trial of Lewis Scooter Libby to contradict Mr Libby’s testimony to the grand jury.

Mr Russert told the trial that he had not discussed the identity of a CIA agent with Mr Libby, the vice-president’s former chief of staff.

Mr Libby had told the grand jury he first heard about Valerie Plame, the covert operative, from Mr Russert during a phone call in July 2003, claiming the journalist had said “all the reporters” knew that Ms Plame was an agent at the Central Intelligence Agency. Mr Russert said he had not discussed Ms Plame in that call. “That would be impossible. I didn’t know who that person was until several days later.”

The prosecution contends that Mr Libby lied to the grand jury, seeking to blame reporters to mask the fact he first heard her name from Dick Cheney, the vice-president, and that there was an effort to leak her name to undermine her husband, Joe Wilson, for voicing public doubts about intelligence on Iraq’s nuclear capabilities.

Mr Russert’s testimony could be damaging to Mr Libby, who faces five charges, including obstruction of justice. Mr Russert said he first learned about the identity of Ms Plame from a newspaper article several days after he spoke to Mr Libby, who had called him in “a state of agitation” to complain about how the vice-president’s office was being characterised on Hardball, a political programme on MSNBC.

“He was very firm and very direct. He had not liked what he had heard, saying ‘What the hell is going on with Hardball, and damn it, I’m tired of hearing my name again and again’,” Mr Russert testified. “It was not a natural phone call.”

Mr Libby’s defence lawyers sought to discredit Mr Russert by citing evidence he admitted having a faulty memory about an unrelated incident. They have been trying to prove their client simply forgot who first told him about Ms Plame.