And the Verdict Is....

The jury has reached a verdict in the case against Lewis "Scooter" Libby. It will be read in court shortly, but it remains to be seen whether there will be a Fitzmas or not.

My gut feeling is that the jury couldn't find him guilty. The jury itself was wrestling with the same issues that dogged Libby - the ability to recall specifics of the case and details that may have been central to Fitzgerald's case.

UPDATE:
Firedoglake, which has been providing daily coverage of the trial, will be liveblogging the verdict as soon as it comes down.

UPDATE:
Firedoglake is swamped, but Drudge is headlining that Libby is guilty of some charges. No word on which ones or any other details. As they say, this is still developing.

UPDATE:
NYT: Jury Finds Libby Guilty on 4 of 5 Counts, Including Obstruction of Justice

UPDATE:
Obstruction of Justice: GUILTY
False statements to FBI investigators (about Russert conversation): GUILTY
False statement to FBI investigators (about Cooper conversation): NOT GUILTY
Perjury to the Grand Jury (about Tim Russert conversation): GUILTY
Perjury to the Grand Jury (about the Matt Cooper conversation): GUILTY

The perjury charges flow into the obstruction charges, so in that respect this make sense facially. Still, it will be interesting to read what the jury thought was the determining factor in the guilt.

It is curious that the jury thought that Libby was less trustworthy than Tim Russert or Matt Cooper, when it came down to it though the jury did find that Cooper wasn't nearly as trustworthy as Russert. All had motives here to be less than forthcoming - for Russert and Cooper, it was their journalistic careers and for Libby it was being a member of the Administration.

It was the word of one man versus the word of another.

This case leaves much to be desired considering that the key detail that got the ball rolling - the supposed revelation about Valerie Plame's CIA status, was a nonissue. No laws were broken in relation to that fact, and Libby's charges were all related to the investigation that turned up no wrongdoing for which Fitzgerald was originally charged to discover.

Sentencing will bring this sorry chapter to a close. Still unanswered by all this is who exactly prompted Joe Wilson to go to Africa and whether his wife had anything to do with it.

UPDATE:
For those who have forgotten what the original charges are, here's the original filing.

UPDATE:
The matter had been closed for months since there was nothing more to investigate. The identity of the person who first exposed Plame's name was known: Richard Armitage, and yet Fitzgerald declined to prosecute Armitage primarily because there was no crime committed.

The investigation still continued because they needed to cross and dot. Libby got caught up in all this because he gave conflicting statements that affected the course of the investigation. To Fitzgerald and his team, this presented a problem - would it be unethical as a prosecutor to let this stand. They decided to prosecute Libby on those grounds.

I don't totally buy it since the facts and circumstances appeared to be slim at best - and it came down to he-said v. he-said. However, the jury saw things differently. They spent more time examining matters and heard only bits and pieces of the whole story - as per various rulings on testimony and what was introduced as evidence. That definitely plays a role in the verdict.

Looking at the jury instructions and finding out what led them to rule in this fashion will be interesting exercises in the coming days.

UPDATE:
Pajamas Media has a huge roundup of reaction. Others weighing in on the Libby verdict include: Blue Crab Boulevard, AJ Strata, Outside the Beltway, Flopping Aces,

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