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Great drama, but no underlying crime

Published January 17, 2007 at midnight

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One of those political trials that the national capital loves is getting under way this week.

It involves the mighty. The defendant is I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the vice president's former chief of staff, for whom Dick Cheney himself is likely to set the precedent of being the first sitting vice president to testify in a criminal trial. Senior Bush adviser Karl Rove is expected to testify as well.

It involves the famous. NBC News bureau chief Tim Russert is expected to testify for the prosecution; author and Washington Post editor Bob Woodward for the defense. Also likely to testify are other big-name Washington journalists and top White House aides and allies.

And it involves an implacable and relentless special prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, who has spent three years investigating and building his case.

The proceedings should make for fascinating courtroom drama - except that there is no underlying crime. Libby is charged with perjury and obstruction of justice in connection with the investigation. Depending on who's talking, he either lied or misspoke about his conversations with reporters or simply didn't remember them.

At one point in the probe it appeared that the White House orchestrated a leak to discredit an administration critic. But that leak, at least as far as we know now, came in reporters' casual conversations with a senior State Department official and not as the result of a White House conspiracy to somehow get someone.

So even though the stakes are high for Libby - if convicted, he faces jail time unless the president pardons him - the trial itself has little or no underlying significance.