Novak likely to testify in Libby trial

[Ron Burgundy]

AP - Robert Novak, who triggered an FBI investigation in 2003 by revealing the identity of a CIA operative in his syndicated column, is among witnesses that lawyers said were ready to testify Monday in the perjury and obstruction trial of former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.

The former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney is charged with lying and obstructing the investigation into how Novak and others learned the identity of Valerie Plame, whose husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, was a prominent critic of the Bush administration's Iraq war policy.

Novak has said that Richard Armitage, the former deputy secretary of state, and Bush aide Karl Rove were the sources for his July 2003 column.

"You're going to hear that," defense attorney Theodore Wells said in court Monday morning. "He's going to testify about that in a few hours."

It wasn't clear whether Novak would be the first defense witness. He is one of several journalists whom Libby's attorneys planned to call. These lawyers also are fighting hard to force NBC foreign affairs reporter Andrea Mitchell to testify about why she said that Plame's identity was "widely known" even before the Novak column was published.

Mitchell has since recanted those comments and has said that she cannot explain them.

A key dispute in the case involves Mitchell's NBC colleague, Tim Russert. Libby says Russert told him in July 2003 that "all the reporters know" Plame worked for the CIA. Russert said that never happened because he didn't know who Plame was at the time.

Prosecutors say Libby concocted the Russert story to shield him from prosecution for discussing information he had learned through official government channels.

Libby's attorneys want to show that Russert had heard that Plame worked at the CIA. Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer has already testified that he told NBC reporter David Gregory about her. If Libby can show that Mitchell knew, too, they think they can persuade jurors to believe Libby's account of the Russert conversation.

Mitchell is challenging a subpoena to testify in the case, and U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton said Monday he was unlikely to allow Libby's attorneys to ask about her inconsistent statements,

"I just don't buy that, because she made this statement, that somehow she would've communicated it to Russert and Russert would've had some basis for asking questions about it," Walton said.

The judge said he would hear arguments on the issue, however.

In addition to Mitchell, attorneys have said several other journalists are expected to testify this week: New York Times managing editor Jill Abramson, Newsweek assistant managing editor Evan Thomas, and Bob Woodward, Walter Pincus and Glenn Kessler from the Washington Post.

source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070212/ap_on_go_pr_wh/cia_leak_trial [link]