WASHINGTON, Jan. 25 (UPI) -- I. Lewis Libby was active in Bush administration efforts to mold U.S. news coverage of an investigation of Iraq's nuclear program, a witness said Thursday.
Cathie Martin, former public affairs director for Vice President Dick Cheney, was the first witness at Libby's trial who still works at the White House, the Washington Post reported. Libby, known as "Scooter," resigned as Cheney's chief of staff when he was charged with perjury.
Martin told the jury in Washington federal court that Libby told her to find out from the CIA which reporters were doing stories on former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson's trip to Niger. Wilson says that his wife, Valerie Plame, was "outed" as a CIA agent because he reported that there was no evidence that Iraq had acquired yellowcake uranium in Niger.
The jury also saw Martin's handwritten notes of a meeting in which Cheney gave her talking points on the Wilson trip.
Libby is not charged with leaking Plame's identity but with lying about it to investigators. His defense lawyers say that the Bush administration sacrificed him to protect Karl Rove, President Bush's top political aide.
