US:Defence claims former chief of staff to US vice- president is victim of a White House conspiracy, writes Denis Stauntonin Washington
Lawyers for Lewis "Scooter" Libby, former chief of staff to US vice-president Dick Cheney, begin their closing arguments today in a trial that has shed a harsh light on the inner workings of the White House and the intimate relationship between government and the media.
Mr Libby is charged with lying to a grand jury about his role in the 2003 leak of Valerie Plame's identity as a CIA agent, a few days after the publication of a newspaper article by her husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson, questioning intelligence claims made to justify the Iraq war.
Compared in advance to the trial of Nixon aides over Watergate, and Reagan administration officials over the Iran-Contra scandal, Mr Libby's trial has proved to be less dramatic than expected, partly because the defence decided against introducing its two star witnesses - Mr Cheney and Mr Libby himself.
In his opening statement three weeks ago, defence lawyer Theodore Wells dropped a bombshell, declaring that Mr Libby had been the victim of a White House conspiracy to protect President George Bush's top political adviser Karl Rove.
Mr Wells's failure to bring Mr Cheney and Mr Libby to the witness stand has, however, left the conspiracy theory hanging before the jury with no supporting evidence, making the case for the defence more difficult to argue.
Nobody has been charged with the offence of leaking Ms Plame's CIA identity but Mr Libby could face up to 10 years in prison for lying under oath to a grand jury. He initially denied that he knew about Ms Plame's job or that she was Mr Wilson's wife, but later conceded that at one point he had heard it from veteran NBC journalist Tim Russert, and then passed along the information as gossip. He claimed that he was so preoccupied with important issues of national security that he forgot the details of how he heard about Ms Plame.
The court heard from some of Washington's most distinguished journalists, including five Pulitzer prizewinners. Mr Russert testified that he never discussed Ms Plame with Mr Libby, and a number of other journalists contradicted Mr Libby's claims.
Under cross-examination, however, the journalists appeared uncomfortable discussing the nature of their relationship with the administration and the way information is leaked in off-the-record and background conversations.
Each journalist who testified about a source emphasised that the source had given permission and in some cases had requested that the journalist should testify.
Others admitted that they could not remember the details of crucial interviews or were unable to read their own notes.
Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward played a recording of an expletive-peppered interview with former deputy chief of staff Richard Armitage in which Mr Armitage revealed that Ms Plame was a CIA officer.
Another Washington Post reporter, Glenn Kessler, said that almost all his interviews were conducted on background (where the information can be published but the source cannot be revealed), adding that his job would be impossible without the extensive use of anonymous sources.
Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald hopes to persuade the jury that the case is straightforward and that he has shown beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr Libby lied under oath when questioned about the leaking of Ms Plame's identity.
Defence lawyers hope that jurors will believe that Mr Libby, who worked from 6.30am until 8pm every day, was under such pressure that his memory failed him and he made an innocent mistake in his testimony.