NOT HUMANLY POSSIBLE? The court is in the midst of addressing a couple of questions the jury in the Scooter Libby trial submitted on Friday. One has to do with how the jury should understand part of the obstruction of justice charge against Libby — and the main implication of that question (which had to do with the part of the charge bearing on Libby’s testimony about his conversation with Matt Cooper) was that the jury had not yet decided that Libby was guilty on the basis of his testimony about his conversation with Tim Russert. The other jury question is more intriguing. It reads:
We would like clarification of the term “reasonable doubt”. Specifically, is it necessary for the government to present evidence that it is not humanly possible for someone not to recall an event in order to find guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
The consensus among observers over the weekend was that there may be one or two people on the jury whom the others felt were holding on to an impossibly high standard for judging whether Libby lied. But reading juries is a difficult business. And the judge is treading very carefully in figuring out how to respond. At the moment, it appears he has sent a note back to the jury asking them to clarify just what they are asking before offering a substantive response.
Meanwhile, a bit of shameless self-promotion and a bit of proud other-promotion: If you can’t get enough of analysis of the Libby trial, I’ll be butting online heads with Byron York over it at the LA Times‘ new Dust-Up feature each day this week. And, going off the Libby reservation a bit, The Washington Post has a deeply disappointing, even terrible article today on a very important topic: Plan B in Iraq — what we do if and when the president’s current plan fails. (The article is all the more astonishing because it is written by two very fine reporters, Karen DeYoung and Thomas Ricks.) For a much better sense of just why this is an important topic to debate now, a much clearer sense of the state of play on it, and a nice explanation of the main options we face, check out my friend and colleague Colin Kahl‘s new piece in Foreign Policy online.
–Jeff Lomonaco
