What the CIA Leak Case Is About

"Did you have any sense that if you revealed the person's identity out at the CIA you may be compromising the identity of a covert person?" Fitzgerald was recorded as asking Libby.

"No, sir," Libby responded. "I mean, my, my understanding is that most of the people at the CIA are not covert . . ."

"You didn't consider that there might be a risk that a person working at the CIA might be overt to other CIA employees and even sometimes to the government, but may be operating undercover -- or might otherwise be a covert person?"

"I had no sense that it was something classified."

The jury heard it all, aided by their own copies of the transcript and exhibits. Of course, if they thought about Mrs. Wilson's status, they would have been violating Judge Walton's order.

Then there was the argument Fitzgerald had with defense lawyer Ted Wells over Fitzgerald's theory that Libby lied because he was afraid for his job after President Bush announced that anyone who leaked classified information about a CIA agent would be fired.

Wait a minute, said Wells. "The jury has been instructed that the issue of whether it was classified or whether she was covert will not be presented in this case."

"I'm not going to tell the jury the information was classified," Fitzgerald responded. "I will tell the jury that there was an investigation into whether the law was violated."

Of course, we all knew -- and the jury knew too, since it was discussed in Libby's grand jury testimony -- that the law to which Fitzgerald referred was the one barring disclosure of a covert agent's identity.

Outside the courtroom, Fitzgerald has said that Mrs. Wilson's status was in fact classified. The Libby indictment says that, too. But the judge has not allowed the jury to see the indictment, either.

The result is that jurors have heard constant suggestions that some sort of crime, committed by the administration and perhaps by Libby himself, lies at the bottom of the case. An air of accusation hangs over the courtroom.

But the accusation can't be discussed.

Maybe in the end, jurors will be able to make sense of it all. But it's more likely that even after the trial ends, they'll still have one question they want answered.

The writer is White House correspondent for National Review.