John Hannah on the stand

John Hannah inherited Scooter Libby's responsibilities as chief adviser to the Vice President on national security matters. The defense has called him to testify about the crushing nature of Libby's workload between 2004 and 2004, as part of their contention that any untruths that Libby might have told the FBI or the grand jury investigating the Valerie Plame leak resulted from stress, not intentional deception.

Hannah said Libby had an "awful memory." He said that there were times when he presented his analysis of issue to him in the morning, only to have Libby repeat the same analysis to him "six or seven hours later" with no memory that the information had first come from Hannah. The attorney led Hannah through a long and tedious list of responsibilities Libby had, safes of classified documents for which he was responsible, meetings he regularly attended, weighty concerns before him, long hours they routinely put in. Libby often started work at 6:30 or 7:00 AM, and didn't leave before 8:00 PM.

The questioning turns to Libby's particular responsibilities in anti-terrorism issues, including monitoring dissent, monitoring Iran's ambitions, and supporting the administration's Middle East peace plan among other responsibilities.

Under questioning, Hannah confirmed that in early July, 2003, Libby and Vice President Cheney were involved in efforts to smooth relations with the Turkish government after 11 Turkish soldiers were detained by US forces on July 4. Hannah describes the situation as a "crisis" of "very high importance to the US government." Hannah estimated that it took a week to resolve the problem. According to CNN story, the Turkish troops were released on July 6.

Hannah said Libby was also involved in the Vice President's efforts with regard to the civil war in Liberia during that week.

Fitzgerald cross: (unless there are quotation marks, these are paraphrases): As Chief of Staff for the Vice President, would it be important to respond to criticism of the vice president?

Hannah: Not the language he would use, but it was important to "push back on those issues."

Fitzgerald: Cites a series of defense exhibits, doc

Fitzgerald: On June 9, did Libby ask what people in the VP's office knew about Wilson's trip to Niger.

Hannah: Yes. He found out that people in the vice president's office didn't know about it, that the trip had not been initiated at the Vice President's request.

Fitzgerald: But you did find a report on the trip by Ambassador Wilson.

Hannah: Yes.

Fitzgerald: When you went to share the information in this report, you came to realize that he already knew about it, is that correct?

Hannah: Yes.



Fitzgerald: Is it fair to say that what was important to the vice president was important to Mr. Libby?

Hannah: (after a bit of hesitation): Yes.

Defense redirect: The report didn't say anything about Mr. Wilson's wife, did it?
Hannah: "It did not, no."

Questions from Judge Walton about Libby's memory lapses. Hannah said Libby remembered arguments well, but sometimes forgot where the arguments came from.

Hannah: "It's hard. This kind of thing that I just described was a very regular pattern with Scooter. But he was very good at remembering his own arguments, key facts, key points that he wanted to make."

Hannah says the months after the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime was particularly intense.

Judge: "Did you ever think that important national security issues were ever short-changed" because of Libby's memory lapses.

Hannah: "No, I think that would be an unfair criticism." He added that Libby handled his responsibilities as well as anyone in that position.

At 12:06, the Judge dismissed the jury so that he could discuss some legal issues with the attorneys. There will also be an afternoon recess because the judge has another trial -- just how long is not quite clear at this point.

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