The Libby-Cheney Bummer

Amy Goldstein and Carol D. Leonnig write in The Washington Post: "Attorneys for I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby said yesterday that he and Vice President Cheney, his former boss, will not testify in Libby's perjury trial, leaving the defense preparing to rest its case today after barely more than two days of testimony.

"The defense's announcement in court, partway through the fifth week of the celebrated trial of the vice president's former chief of staff, represented an abrupt shift from the witness strategy that Libby's lawyers laid out in hearings and court papers during the months leading up to the trial.

"The defense's central theory is that Libby suffered from a notoriously bad memory and misspoke to investigators about his role in the Bush administration's disclosure of the identity of undercover CIA officer Valerie Plame. The decision to foreshorten the case means that jurors will hear little testimony and see scant evidence to back that contention. Yesterday, John Hannah, a former deputy to Libby for national security matters, provided the sole support for the idea, testifying that 'on certain things, Scooter just had an awful memory.'

"The decision also means that the defense will not call any witnesses to explicitly buttress a dramatic assertion by lawyer Theodore V. Wells Jr. in his opening statement to the jury: that Libby was scapegoated by his White House colleagues when the leak investigation began."

Neil A. Lewis and Scott Shane write in the New York Times: "One likely factor in that calculation is that putting Mr. Libby on the stand would expose him to a cross-examination by Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the chief prosecutor, that could be withering."

Lewis and Shane write about Hannah's testimony: "In Mr. Hannah's account, Mr. Libby had barely time to draw an extra breath, starting with an early morning C. I. A. briefing 'that covers the waterfront of the world.' . . .

"Although Mr. Hannah testified for the defense for nearly two hours, the prosecutor, Mr. Fitzgerald, seemed to cut down much of the significance of his testimony in five minutes of cross-examination. Noting that Mr. Hannah had testified that he could usually have a few minutes alone with Mr. Libby only in the evening after the crush of business, Mr. Fitzgerald suggested that Mr. Libby would have devoted time only to matters of great concern to him in the week of July 6, 2003.

"'If he gave something an hour or two that week, it would be something Mr. Libby thought was important, right?' asked Mr. Fitzgerald.

"'Well, with regard to me, yes,' Mr. Hannah replied.

"Left unsaid in the exchange was undisputed testimony that Mr. Libby spent nearly two hours on Tuesday, July 8, with [Judith] Miller, then a Times reporter. Ms. Miller has testified that Mr. Libby told her in detail about Ms. Wilson at the meeting. Mr. Libby acknowledged meeting Ms. Miller to counter Mr. Wilson's accusations, but said he did not discuss Ms. Wilson."

Michael Calderone of the New York Observer describes the brief testimony from New York Times managing editor Jill Abramson. Miller previously testified that she wanted to pursue a story about Libby's efforts to leak Plame's identity, but that Abramson had turned her down. But under defense questioning, Abramson said she had no recollection of such a conversation.

Calderone writes: "Debra Bonamici took over for the prosecution and asked a question that provoked a few chuckles in the press section. At the time in question, he said, had Ms. Abramson 'tune[d] out' the reporter?