Fleischer: Libby told me about Plame "on the q.t."

Scooter Libby told Patrick Fitzgerald's grand jury back in 2004 that he first learned that Joseph Wilson's wife worked for the CIA when Tim Russert told him as much on or about July 10, 2003.

Ari Fleischer says it's not so.

Testifying this morning in Libby's perjury trial, Fleischer said that Libby told him on July 7, 2003, that Wilson was sent to Niger by his wife and that his wife worked in the counterproliferation division of the CIA. "I think that he told me her name," Fleischer said.

Fleischer said that Libby told him the information was "hush-hush" and "on the q.t." He said he didn't know what Libby meant by that, but he interpreted it -- see if you can follow this -- as meaning that the information was "kind of newsy."

Fleischer seemed nervous as he took the stand -- indeed, he was nervous enough that he insisted on getting immunity before answering questions in front of Fitzgerald's grand jury -- but he warmed to the job after a few minutes, describing events at the White House in the mildly condescending manner of a tour guide talking to a school group: The press secretary speaks for the president and has "all sorts of meetings with reporters"; the State of the Union address is a "very important event" where the president can "define what he seeks to do"; in the White House basement, there are "two messes" where staff members can meet and eat.

Fleischer said it was over lunch in one of those messes that Libby first told him about Wilson's wife. Wilson's New York Times Op-Ed was one of three subjects of conversation that day, Fleischer said. The other two? Fleischer's future -- he had already announced that he was leaving the White House -- and the Miami Dolphins.

Fleischer: Plame news was a "so what" for reporters

Ari Fleischer on what happened when he told a handful of White House reporters traveling with the president in Uganda that Joseph Wilson's wife had sent him to Niger: "The press's reaction was, 'So what?' They didn't take out their notebooks, they didn't start writing anything, they didn't ask me any follow-up questions as I recall ... Like a lot of things I said to the press, it had no impact."

Fleischer said it was a bit of a "so what" to him, too. While Fleischer said he thought that the claim that Wilson's wife sent him to Niger helped bolster the White House's defense that Dick Cheney didn't send him there -- and, hence, the White House shouldn't know what Wilson found there -- he said he didn't think "in my wildest dreams" that he was leaking classified information to the press or that he'd someday read in the newspaper that Valerie Plame was a "covert agent in the Central Intelligence Agency."

That part is a bit of a "so what" to Libby's lawyers, who leapt to their feet to object lest the jury infer from Fleischer's testimony that Plame was, in fact, a "covert" CIA agent. After a brief sidebar with the lawyers, Judge Reggie Walton instructed the jurors that they were not to infer anything about Plame's status at the CIA based upon what Fleischer had said.

A few minutes later, Fleischer testified that he first realized that he might be in "big trouble" for leaking Plame's name when he read in the New York Times that the CIA had asked for a criminal investigation into the leak.

The unflappable Ari Fleischer?

Scooter Libby defense lawyer William Jeffress has spent much of the afternoon trying to chip away at the credibility of Ari Fleischer. It wouldn't seem to be a particularly difficult task: As White House press secretary, Fleischer dissembled on everything from Iraqi WMD to the president's views on nation building to the threats that weren't made against Air Force One on 9/11.

But on the more narrow matter at issue today -- what Libby told Fleischer over lunch in the White House mess on July 7, 2003 -- Jeffress hasn't yet landed much of a punch. Fleischer testified earlier today that Libby told him during that lunch that Joseph Wilson had been sent to Niger by his wife and that Wilson's wife worked in the counterproliferation division of the Central Intelligence Agency. If the jury believes Fleischer, his testimony is a major blow for Libby, who said, in sworn testimony before the grand jury, that he first learned about Wilson's wife from Tim Russert three days later.

Jeffress hasn't accused Fleischer of making up the lunch conversation, exactly, but he has tried mightily to nibble around at the edges. Fleischer hasn't given much ground, leaving Jeffress' inquiries to land with dull thuds rather than the explosions he might be intending.

Jeffress seized on the fact that Fleischer had said he thinks -- rather than he knows -- that Libby used Valerie Plame's name during their lunch. "That's what you say, 'I think,' on the name." Yes, Fleischer said: "I said 'I think.'" You don't know for certain? "Absolute certainty? No."

Jeffress noted that Fleischer had pronounced Plame's name two different ways in his grand jury testimony -- once as if it rhymed with "flame," another time as if it were pronounced "Plaw-may." Doesn't that suggest that Fleischer first learned of Plame's name by reading it somewhere rather than by hearing someone say it? No, Fleischer said, explaining that while it mattered to him that Wilson's wife worked at the CIA -- he thought it helped back up his claim that the Office of the Vice President hadn't sent Wilson to Niger -- he really didn't care what her name was.

Jeffress noted that Fleischer testified that he had talked with Libby about the Miami Dolphins during their lunch. In what seemed like an attempt to prove that Fleischer didn't really have such a clear independent memory of the discussion, Jeffress asked Fleischer to read a "goodbye and good luck" letter he received from Libby a few days later -- a letter in which Libby mentioned their mutual affection for the Dolphins. Jeffress didn't follow up, apparently thinking that he'd made whatever point he meant to make. Maybe he had, but the result was more lightning bug than lightning.

Jeffress reminded Fleischer of a conversation he had with NBC's David Gregory in which Gregory said it was too bad that Fleischer had to deal with the controversy over the "16 words" in Bush's State of the Union address during his last week as White House press secretary. Fleischer told Gregory that it was all the same to him -- that if it hadn't been "this crap" it would have been "some other crap." Didn't Fleischer call Gregory and ask him not to quote him on that? Yes, Fleischer said. Why was that, Jeffress asked. "Because," Fleischer said, "I don't think press secretaries should go around using that word."

It might be too much to say that Fleischer is unimpeachable, but a man who spent two and a half years defending George W. Bush is a man who can handle himself on cross-examination -- especially when he's sporting the well-dressed, well-fed look of a corporate communications consultant and packing a grant of immunity in his pocket.

And now, a few words from David Addington

With the lawyers having finished with Ari Fleischer, David Addington is now on the witness stand at the Scooter Libby trial. It's late in the day, and either Addington is the most talkative person in the world -- an odd character trait for Dick Cheney's chief of staff -- or he's just trying to run out the clock before getting to matters of substance tomorrow.

Addington spent what seemed like a lifetime describing his work experience. He described -- by approximate dimensions and also by comparison to a table in the courtroom -- the size of an office in the West Wing. He painted a word picture of the seating arrangements on Air Force Two: which seats are on the "port" side, which seats are on the "starboard" side and who sits in each. He offered excruciating detail about procedures the White House might use to gather documents requested by the Justice Department.

We've learned a lot listening to Addington, just not a lot that is relevant to the guilt or innocence of his predecessor as Cheney's chief of staff. That said, Addington did offer a detailed account of a meeting he said he had with Libby at some point between July 6 and July 12, 2003 -- a meeting in which Addington said Libby asked him if the president has the authority to declassify documents and whether there would be paperwork at the CIA if the agency had sent someone on a trip somewhere. Addington said that Libby didn't name names in the meeting but that he assumed that Joseph Wilson might be the focus of his questions.

At one point during the meeting, Addington said, Libby signaled with his hands that Addington should keep his voice down. When the meeting ended, Addington said, Libby walked directly into Cheney's office -- if he remembers correctly, with Stephen Hadley in tow.

Coming soon: Judy Miller

Good news for Valerie Plame obsessives everywhere: Former New York Times reporter Judy Miller will probably take the stand in the Scooter Libby trial Tuesday. Bad news for Plame obsessives everywhere: Patrick Fitzgerald says he doesn't intend to ask Miller about Libby's "aspens will already be turning" letter during his direct examination.

-Tim Grieve