The moderator for the most-watched Sunday news show testified Wednesday that he didn’t reveal the name of the CIA agent to I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, directly contradicting the former vice president chief of staff’s testimony to a grand jury.
“Meet the Press” moderator Tim Russert, who limped into the federal courtroom on crutches Wednesday after sustaining a broken ankle, became the third journalist to testify and the government’s star witness. Libby is on trial for perjury and obstruction of justice. No one has been charged in the leak.
Russert was the last media member to testify on behalf of the government in a trial that has pulled back the curtain on how the nation’s top reporters gather their news and deal with the powerful people they cover. Media critics such as Michael Wolff of Vanity Fair and Howard Kurtz of CNN and “Reliable Sources” were there to cover the spectacle, even as Russert described an interview he had with Kurtz.
Russert testified that he couldn’t have identified the CIA agent to Libby during a July 2003 phone conversation because he didn’t learn the agent’s name until he read it in a newspaper column the following week.
In a voice softer than one he uses to grill sources on his Sunday show, Russert described their conversation as a “confidential call that evolved into a viewer complaint.” Russert said the coverage on NBC’s “Hardball” and the host Christopher Matthews, agitated Libby.
“What the hell is going on with ‘Hardball?’ ” Libby asked, Russert testified. “Damn it, I’m tired of hearing my name over and over again.’”
Russert said he and Libby never discussed former Ambassador Joseph Wilson’s allegations that the Bush administration had twisted the truth about going to war with Iraq, Wilson’s trip to Niger or Wilson’s wife, the CIA agent.
On cross-examination, the newsman said he didn’t have the opportunity to question Libby about Wilson, one of the biggest stories that week.
