February 14, 2007
TAKING THE 5TH:
Libby Team Reverses Its Course: Defendant, Vice President Will Not Take the Stand (JOSH GERSTEIN, February 14, 2007, NY Sun)
In a major reversal, defense lawyers for I. Lewis Libby Jr. now intend to close their case without testimony from the former White House aide or his onetime boss, Vice President Cheney.
They were never going to let a guilty client testify. There's no jury nullification card to be played here. Posted by Orrin Judd at February 14, 2007 12:00 AM
Actually, they did effectively let Libby testify by playing his grand jury testimony. It seems more likely that after literally hours of that, doing it again in this trail would be a pointless way of annoying the jury.
Posted by: Annoying Old Guy at February 14, 2007 2:01 PMThe more common take on this is that the prosecution has so badly screwed up their case (as witness after witness provided conflicting and/or incomplete recollections) that there is no need to put Libby or Cheney on the stand.
Posted by: AWW at February 14, 2007 3:18 PMIf he were innocent he'd say so.
Posted by: oj at February 14, 2007 6:19 PMI haven't been following this trial at all, but I do believe I read that Libby pleaded (pled?) not guilty.
Posted by: erp at February 15, 2007 3:51 PMWhen you don't testify you acknowledge guilt.
Posted by: oj at February 15, 2007 5:26 PM