Libby Lawyer Attempts to Discredit Prosecution Witness

Jan. 24, 2007 — -- On the second day of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's trial, defense lawyer Ted Wells attempted to discredit statements made by prosecution witness Marc Grossman to the FBI.

The defense attempted to show discrepancies in comments made by Grossman in his Oct. 17, 2003, interview with the FBI at the beginning of the criminal investigation into who leaked the identity of Valerie Plame, a CIA agent and former diplomat Joseph Wilson's wife.

Wells focused on an FBI report about Grossman's interview, not submitted into evidence, in which Grossman told the FBI that he had only spoken with Libby about Joseph and Valerie Wilson by telephone.

In Grossman's two FBI interviews on Oct. 17, 2003, and Feb. 4, 2004, before his grand jury testimony on March 12, 2004, Grossman never referenced a face-to-face meeting with Libby, according to Wells.

But on Tuesday, Grossman testified that he spoke with Libby after a White House meeting in person by the entrance to the White House Situation Room.

On June 9, 2003, Grossman also spoke on the phone with Wilson. Wilson said he was angered by comments made by Condoleezza Rice on "Meet the Press," Grossman testified. On the program the previous day, Rice referred to Wilson as a low-level person.

"He was furious…He was really mad," Grossman said. During this conversation, Wilson said he might go public with his version of the Iraq-Niger caper, Grossman said on the stand.

Wells' line of questioning also focused on the State Department intelligence report which Grossman requested to find out about the nature of the Iraq-Niger claims and the Wilson trip.

The review of the intelligence reports and FBI interviews were met with roughly 12 objections by Fitzgerald's deputy prosecutor Peter Zeidenberg, who was concerned that the questions deviated to topics other than conversations concerning Libby and Wilson.

Wells also drilled down into conversations between Grossman and then Deputy Sec. of State Richard Armitage about Armitage's conversations with the FBI. Armitage contacted Grossman the day before his October 2003 FBI interview, Grossman said. Armitage told him that he revealed to the FBI that he had told journalist Robert Novak about Plame's work at the CIA, Grossman said.