LIBBY CLOSE. Scooter Libby's defense has announced that they're not calling Dick Cheney as a witness after all, and confirmed that Libby won't be testifying. In fact, they're going to call a few CIA briefers to testify to the important matters Libby was briefed on, enter a few documents, and rest their case. Closing arguments are apparently going to happen next Tuesday, though there are some outstanding issues that may delay that.
I'll let the lawyers assess whether Libby's surprisingly brief defense means that his team feels confident about their prospects. I will say this: my lawyer friends tell me it's a big no-no to make a claim in the opening that you don't go on to substantiate, and as far as I can tell the defense has offered no evidence, beyond one note from Vice President Cheney and an attempt to elicit testimony from Robert Novak to the effect that Karl Rove was a key political figure, for its opening claim that in the fall of 2003 Libby was acting not to save his job but to counter a White House effort to scapegoat Libby for the leaking in order to save their key political genius, Rove. Might Libby's lawyers be so confident of their case that they can get past that seeming gap in it?
--Jeff Lomonaco
