The Defense Rests

Plamegate's sole criminal prosecution will be going to the jury shortly as the defense team rested without calling the big names that some were hoping. No Rove. No Cheney. No Libby.

The Times would like folks to believe that the case against Libby is strong. Note that they've latched on to the judge's rulings against Libby.

Mr. Libby faces five felony charges that he lied to a grand jury and F.B.I. agents investigating the leak of the identity of a C.I.A. operative, Valerie Wilson, to reporters in the summer of 2003 .

Mr. Libby denied under oath that he had passed information to reporters about Ms. Wilson, and his lawyers have put forward as a part of his defense that he was too preoccupied with the crush of vital national security issues to have remembered any conversation about Ms. Wilson or her husband, Joseph C. Wilson IV, a former ambassador.

Judge Walton said his ruling meant that the chief defense lawyer, Theodore V. Wells Jr., would not be able to make that argument to the jury. Mr. Wells will be permitted to tell the jury that Mr. Libby had “a lot on his plate,” Judge Walton said. But because Mr. Libby is not testifying, Mr. Wells cannot argue that those issues were of greater importance in Mr. Libby’s mind “as compared to the issue of Valerie Plame and Ambassador Wilson.”

The identity of Ms. Wilson, who is also known by her maiden name, Valerie Plame, first became public in July 2003 after The New York Times published an op-ed article by Mr. Wilson asserting that the White House had distorted intelligence to justify invading Iraq.

The conclusion of the defense case today means that jurors will hear closing arguments when they return Tuesday and probably begin deliberating next Wednesday after instructions from the judge.

Tom Maguire has been following the trial extensively, and the key to Libby's defense is reasonable doubt. All the defense has to do is raise reasonable doubt as to the fact pattern laid out by the prosecutor and bring it below the threshold of beyond a reasonable doubt. It is as simple as putting enough questions into the minds of the jury about the facts and circumstances so as to make it possible that Libby didn't commit the crimes alleged.

At this point, I tend to believe that Libby will be found not guilty of the charges, though once it passes to the jury, anything is possible.