NBC Newsman Faces Daylong Grilling

Feb. 8, 2007— -- Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald rested his case in the I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby perjury trial after a day of cross-examination testimony from the prosecution's final witness, NBC newsman Tim Russert.

Russert, typically the interviewer as NBC's Washington bureau chief and anchor of "Meet the Press," had the tables turned, facing a daylong grilling from defense attorney Ted Wells.

Wells tried to show that Russert held a double standard by openly discussing his Libby conversation with an FBI agent while rejecting a subpoena to testify about the conversation in front of a federal grand jury.

Libby, the former chief of staff to vice president Dick Cheney, is accused of lying to investigators about who leaked the identity of a CIA agent to the press.

Wednesday, Russert testified that he never talked about CIA operative Valerie Plame with Libby.

That directly contradicts Libby's statements to a grand jury in 2004, in which he said that Russert brought up war critic Joseph Wilson and mentioned that Wilson's wife, Plame, worked for the CIA.

"The call, from beginning to end, was a call where Mr. Libby was voicing a viewer complaint?" Wells asked. "Mr. Libby on the phone was not functioning as a source?"

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Russert told Wells that he initially did not know what the nature of Libby's call was.

"When a call comes in from the vice president's chief of staff, I view it as a source call," Russert said. "But when I heard that, then it evolved into a viewer complaint call."

Wells then spent a long time asking Russert why he discussed the Libby call with former FBI case agent Jack Eckenrode.

"[He] was sharing information with me," Russert said. "He told me, 'Libby said I revealed Valerie Plame's name.' I felt compelled to address this misstatement."

Wells also questioned Russert about the deposition he gave to the prosecution back in August 2004 and an affidavit he filed with the court. The deposition was the equivalent of a grand jury appearance but lasted only 22 minutes.

Those questions were limited solely to his call with Libby. Russert testified that he tried to vigorously fight the subpoena in the grand jury phase of the investigation.