FITZ RESTS HIS CASE: Libby Prosecutors Finish Their Case in CIA Leak Trial

[kpete]

Libby Prosecutors Finish Their Case in CIA Leak Trial (Update1)

By Laurie Asseo

Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Prosecutors completed their case in Lewis ``Scooter'' Libby's perjury trial after NBC journalist Tim Russert was questioned by the defendant's lawyer over why he resisted a subpoena to testify after being interviewed by the FBI.

Russert testified yesterday he didn't tell Libby an Iraq war critic's wife was a Central Intelligence Agency official or discuss her at all in their conversation around July 10, 2003. Libby told a grand jury under oath that Russert brought up CIA official Valerie Plame during their conversation and that Libby didn't discuss her with any other journalist in the days before that talk.

Today, defense lawyer Ted Wells asked repeatedly why Russert fought a 2004 subpoena to testify before the grand jury while he agreed to being questioned by a Federal Bureau of Investigation official in November 2003 when he disputed Libby's account of their conversation.

In testifying before a grand jury, ``you never know what questions will be asked and that's why we fought the subpoena so vigorously,'' Russert said. He said the FBI investigator was the one providing information: namely that Libby said Russert disclosed Plame's identity. ``That was very important to me to correct that misstatement,'' the journalist said.

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