WASHINGTON - Dozens of potential jurors were asked their opinions of the Bush administration Tuesday as jury selection began in the perjury and obstruction trial against former White House aide "Scooter" Libby.
I. Lewis Libby, who served as an adviser to President Bush and chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, is accused of lying to investigators about his conversations with reporters regarding outed CIA officer Valerie Plame. Her identity was leaked to reporters in 2003 after her husband criticized the Bush administration's prewar intelligence on Iraq.
"Do any of you have feelings or opinions about the Bush administration or any of its policies or actions, whether positive or negative, that might affect your ability to give a former member of the Bush administration a fair trial?" U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton asked a panel of about 60 potential jurors.
Walton did not ask jurors their opinions on the Iraq war or whether they had family members of friends who served in the military -- questions Libby's attorneys had hoped would be asked.
The answers will be crucial for Libby, who is hoping that a sympathetic jury can be selected from a city where Democrats outnumber Republicans more than 9-to-1.
"Do any of you have any feelings or opinions about Vice President Cheney, whether positive or negative, that might affect your ability to be fair in this case or that might affect your ability to fairly judge Vice President Cheney's believability?" Walton asked.
Cheney is expected to be a key defense witness. Presidential historians believe it would be the first time a sitting vice president testified in a criminal case.
At the White House Tuesday, press secretary Tony Snow declined to discuss the case. Asked about the possibility of a presidential pardon for Libby, he replied, "I'm not aware of any discussions about a pardon."
The leak of Plame's identity touched off a political scandal and an FBI investigation that Libby is accused of obstructing. Attorneys for both sides want to know how closely potential jurors have been following the case.
Walton prohibited jurors from reading newspapers, watching TV news or listening to the radio. He said court officials would screen newspapers and provide jurors with edited copies to read.
After the group was asked 38 questions, each juror was then scheduled to take the stand for follow-up questions from defense attorneys, prosecutors and the judge.
All jurors are routinely asked whether they have criminal records. In the Libby case, Walton has said the jurors would also undergo criminal background checks.
Fitzgerald requested the background checks because, during his prosecution of former Illinois Gov. George Ryan, two jurors were replaced because they had police records. Defense attorneys are using that to challenge Ryan's conviction and Fitzgerald doesn't want to face the same problem in the Libby case.
Walton expects jury selection to take two to three days and has scheduled opening arguments to begin next Monday. The trial is expected to last four to six weeks.
It should give the public glimpses of how administration insiders responded to a high-level critic -- former ambassador Joseph Wilson -- who claimed the president and his closest advisers distorted intelligence and lied to push the nation into war with Iraq.
The case won't assess blame for the leak itself, however. Former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, who has acknowledged being the original leaker, has not been charged.
Libby plans to be his own star witness. He says he didn't lie to investigators.
During the Plame scandal and the FBI investigation, he says, he was dealing with terrorist threats, the war in Iraq and emerging nuclear programs in Iran, North Korea and Pakistan. He says those overshadowed the Plame issue and clouded his memory about how and when he learned Plame's identity.
