Libby Juror Said Panel Wondered: 'Where Are These Other Guys?'

March 7, 2007 — -- I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby was once Vice President Dick Cheney's closest adviser.

Now he faces the possibility of up to 25 years in prison for lying and obstruction in the CIA leak investigation.

The jury in the case -- made up of four men and seven women after one juror was dismissed -- had to wade through an ocean of evidence before reaching a guilty verdict in the trial.

Juror Denis Collins said that, overall, the panel had sympathy for Libby as person.

"Someone on the jury said he [Libby] was taking one for the team," Collins said today on "Good Morning America." "I think that was definitely the feeling."

The jury concluded that Libby had lied to FBI agents and a grand jury investigating who had leaked the identity of Valerie Plame, a formerly covert CIA officer.

Jurors believed the prosecution's argument that Libby had lied to cover up a campaign by the White House to discredit former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, Plame's husband, who publicly had cast doubts on one of the administration's main reasons for going to war in Iraq.

Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald said the verdict had cast a dark cloud over the vice president's office.

"I think the jury looked at the context of the entire case, and the context of the entire case was shaped by the vice president," said Michael Levy, a former federal prosecutor.

Collins said it was clear to the jury that Libby had been "sent out" to talk to reporters about Wilson and Plame.

"The defense said in effect he was putting his neck into the meat grinder," Collins said.

The jury also heard testimony that former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and Bush adviser Karl Rove were behind the initial leak to reporters about Plame's identity.

Collins said that was a source of frustration for the jurors.

"I can only say that three or four times during this trial someone would say, 'What are we doing here? Where are these other guys?'" he said.

Cheney released a statement saying that he was "very disappointed with the verdict" and that he was "saddened for Scooter and his family."