WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A jury began deliberating Wednesday in the perjury trial of former vice presidential aide Lewis “Scooter” Libby and will decide whether to convict him of obstructing an investigation tied to the Iraq war.

…Libby’s attorneys sought to undermine Russert and other prosecution witnesses by highlighting inconsistencies in their testimony and challenging their recollection of events.

The defense team also said Libby was set up by his White House colleagues to take the blame for Plame’s outing.

From the trial transcript (2/20/07):

Mr. Wells (for the defense): And so, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I remind you what I’ve said time and again, that Mr. Libby was too preoccupied with matters of national security in 2003 to recall just who told who what about trivialities like the guy from the administration who was undermining the whole war effort. And his wife. Mr. Libby’s mind was elsewhere, and it didn’t return from that other place when he was questioned about it a year or so later.

Also, as we’ve demonstrated, not everybody remembers what Scooter originally said in quite the same way. Memory is tricky - very, very tricky. Quick - what word did I begin that last sentence with? Do you remember? You don’t? But this is probably the most important federal trial of the year! And you can’t remember the word I started that sentence with!?

It was “memory,” ladies and gentlemen of the jury. Memory.

Plus, Scooter’s taking the fall for other people. In the administration. He’s a fall-guy.

Now, you may ask why Mr. Libby didn’t take the stand. Or why, if he’s truly a fall guy, we didn’t compel anyone else in the administration to testify. Why we’re not saying who Scooter’s taking the fall FOR. Why, in fact, we didn’t make it clear that, for instance, Mr. Libby’s boss, Vice President Cheney, is the man truly responsible for the leak. Wouldn’t THAT have been a good defense?

Maybe it would have been. That’s “my bad,” right there, really.

Some of you may think that it might have been wise for Mr. Libby to take the stand and tell you himself why the overwhelming stack of evidence is in fact unfair and inconclusive. Let you see who he really is, and hear the story from the accused’s viewpoint. That this “testifying” gambit might have been a good ploy in a trial where conviction, at the moment, seems almost 100% guaranteed.

Perhaps that would have been smart. Hindsight, as always, is 20/20. I wish someone had suggested it during the trial. That’s a shame.

But the thing to remember is that the United States government is like a family. A very close, tightly knit family. And sometimes, within families, there are disagreements. And sometimes older family member compel younger family members to do and say things that aren’t legal, and those younger family members sometimes even end up going to prison for those things. It happens all over America, every day. That’s how family works.

But does that mean that you should just turn your back on your family? “Flip?” Name names to save your own skin? Is that how families behave? To betray the rest of the family, just for a couple months of freedom before you accidentally overdose on medicinal cyanide or your gun accidentally goes off while you’re cleaning it and shoots you in the back of the head? Would that have been the right move.? Not in MY family it wouldn’t. And I’m guessing not in yours either.

No, family loyalty has to count for something. At least to me it does. And to Scooter Libby. To us, family and America MEAN something.

But this is in your hands now, ladies and gentlemen. You may choose to convict Lewis “Scooter” Libby based on the evidence. Or even out of anger that we, his defense, chose to keep you more or less completely in the dark rather than really attempt to prove his innocence or dispute his guilt in any meaningful way. Or strike a plea bargain that might have lessened his prison time but compelled him to to do… other things.
But I am here today to let you know that it is officially my job to ask you to return a verdict of “not guilty” for Scooter, regardless of what I may have done or not done in his defense. Not guilty, I say, because he didn’t do it, because he doesn’t remember it, because some person or people set him up to do the things he didn’t do, and because we all love our families. Officially, on the record, I’m asking you to vote “not guilty.” The rest is up to you.

The defense rests, your honor.