Libby claimed to have learned it from NBC journalist Tim Russert, and that he forgot many of his discussions regarding Plame.
"It just seemed very unlikely he would have forgotten that," said juror Denis Collins to the Washington Post in the March 7 article. "That he could remember that fact on a Tuesday and forget it on a Thursday…didn't make sense." He added that Libby was told about Plame's identity nine times before his conversation with Russert.
The ramification of the conviction is already being discussed in Washington. While Republicans tried to limit the scope of the verdict's meaning, Democrats claimed that it was a public indictment of the administration's Iraq policy.
Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told the USA Today that the conviction showed the administration's "callous disregard in handling sensitive national security information and a disposition to smear critics of the war in Iraq."
Senator John Kennedy told The Washington Post that "this verdict brings accountability at last for official deception and the politics of smear and fear."
Republicans quickly criticized the conviction. "It's a terrible miscarriage of justice and abuse of prosecutorial power," said Senator Trent Lott in a March 8 Washington Post article.
The conviction also highlighted Dick Cheney's loss of influence in Washington.
"The trial has been death by 1,000 cuts for Cheney," Scott Reed, a Republican strategist told the New York Times in a March 7 article. "It's hurt him inside the administration. It's hurt him with the Congress, and it's hurt his stature around the world."
"There is a cloud over the vice president," prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald told the jury in his closing statements.
But his troubles don't end with the Libby verdict. A lawsuit brought against White House officials by Valerie Plame threatens to reveal even more about the inner-workings of the administration.
The Vice-President, along with Libby, Karl Rove, and State Department Deputy Secretary Richard Armitage who later in the case admitted to being the original source of the leak, have been named in the lawsuit.
"It just seemed very unlikely he would have forgotten that," said juror Denis Collins to the Washington Post in the March 7 article. "That he could remember that fact on a Tuesday and forget it on a Thursday…didn't make sense." He added that Libby was told about Plame's identity nine times before his conversation with Russert.
The ramification of the conviction is already being discussed in Washington. While Republicans tried to limit the scope of the verdict's meaning, Democrats claimed that it was a public indictment of the administration's Iraq policy.
Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told the USA Today that the conviction showed the administration's "callous disregard in handling sensitive national security information and a disposition to smear critics of the war in Iraq."
Senator John Kennedy told The Washington Post that "this verdict brings accountability at last for official deception and the politics of smear and fear."
Republicans quickly criticized the conviction. "It's a terrible miscarriage of justice and abuse of prosecutorial power," said Senator Trent Lott in a March 8 Washington Post article.
The conviction also highlighted Dick Cheney's loss of influence in Washington.
"The trial has been death by 1,000 cuts for Cheney," Scott Reed, a Republican strategist told the New York Times in a March 7 article. "It's hurt him inside the administration. It's hurt him with the Congress, and it's hurt his stature around the world."
"There is a cloud over the vice president," prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald told the jury in his closing statements.
But his troubles don't end with the Libby verdict. A lawsuit brought against White House officials by Valerie Plame threatens to reveal even more about the inner-workings of the administration.
The Vice-President, along with Libby, Karl Rove, and State Department Deputy Secretary Richard Armitage who later in the case admitted to being the original source of the leak, have been named in the lawsuit.
