Libby helped make the case for invading Iraq. Cheney is one of the most polarizing figures in the administration, even among Republicans. And the 12 jurors who will be selected starting today will be drawn from a city where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans 10 to 1.
"In most cases, politics are irrelevant. But this case is political," said Carolyn Koch, a Fairfax, Va., jury consultant. "People are so inflamed about the war in Iraq, and here they have a target in front of them. It is an opportunity to vent some anger.
"If I were Scooter Libby, I would be concerned. That does not mean you are guaranteed to be convicted. But it means you have an uphill battle."
The trial is the culmination of a three-year investigation that began with a July 14, 2003, article by syndicated columnist Robert Novak.
Novak took on former envoy Joseph C. Wilson IV, who had just written an op-ed piece in the New York Times that cast doubt over Bush's assertion in his 2003 State of the Union address that Saddam Hussein was seeking to acquire weapons-grade uranium from Niger. The CIA had sent Wilson to Niger in February 2002 to evaluate reports of sales of nuclear material. Novak suggested in his column that the trip was based on nepotism. Citing administration sources, he wrote that Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, worked at the CIA on weapons of mass destruction issues.
In December 2003, the Justice Department appointed U.S. Atty. Patrick J. Fitzgerald in Chicago as special counsel to investigate whether laws making it a crime to divulge the status of a covert operative were broken.
Fitzgerald turned up evidence that the White House was greatly concerned about Wilson, to the point that Bush declassified a national intelligence document to rebut claims the former envoy was making about Africa. The prosecutor also obtained evidence that other officials, including White House political director Karl Rove, had discussed Plame with journalists before her name was published.
But Fitzgerald never charged anyone with breaking the law that protects covert agents. And he continued to investigate even after learning early on who had leaked Plame's identity to Novak. That person, former Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage, was not charged. Fitzgerald has not said why, although it could be because the law can be used only against someone who knowingly discloses the name of a covert agent whose identity officials are actively trying to protect.
