Jurors in the CIA-leak trial opened the sixth day of deliberations with a question for the judge, but in the end figured out the answer on their own.
But the jury still has not reached a verdict in the perjury trial of the vice president’s former chief of staff I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby.
The jury of seven women and four men sent a note to U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton on Tuesday evening asking for clarification of the third of the five charges that Libby faces.
Walton and a score of defense attorneys and prosecutors spent Wednesday morning trying to determine what the jury was asking and how to answer.
Walton sent them a note to clarify their question, and the jurors responded that they had figured out the issue themselves.
“After further discussion, we are clear on what we need to do,” the jury wrote. “No further clarification needed. Thank you. We apologize.”
The question was the jurors’ first since they began deliberations Feb. 21. The episode set off a flurry of speculation. Some observers thought it indicated that the jurors were more than halfway done, since the question was about the third charge.
Libby is accused of lying and obstructing a federal investigation into who leaked the identity of a CIA agent. No one was charged for the leak.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
