Five weeks and 19 witnesses into the CIA leak trial, jurors are set to begin deciding the fate of former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.
Jurors heard a full day of closing arguments in Libby's perjury and obstruction trial yesterday and are scheduled to begin deliberating later today.
US District Judge Reggie B. Walton said he planned to instruct the jury about legal issues this morning before sending them off to deliberate.
Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, is charged with lying and obstructing the investigation into the 2003 leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity. He faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted, though he'd likely get far less under federal sentencing guidelines.
Plame is married to former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who emerged in mid-2003 as an outspoken critic of the Bush administration's case for the Iraq war. Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald says Libby learned about Plame from Cheney and other officials in June 2003 and relayed it to reporters.
AP