In those scandals, trials spawned more trials and long reports from independent counsels. Libby, however, probably will be the only official charged in the CIA leak investigation. His trial is unlikely to fix blame for the scandal.
The trial, nevertheless, should give the public glimpses of how Bush administration insiders responded to one high-level critic -- former ambassador Joseph Wilson -- who said the president and his closest advisers distorted intelligence and lied to push the nation into war with Iraq.
Wilson was the leading critic of Bush's assertion that Iraq tried to buy uranium in Africa. Wilson, who was sent to Niger to check the uranium story, told reporters the intelligence did not check out and the administration knew that long before Bush included the assertion in his State of the Union address in January 2003.
The criticism led White House officials -- including Cheney -- to begin questioning how Wilson ended up making the trip and whether Wilson's wife, a CIA officer, was involved. In June 2003, the back-room chatter made its way into the press.
Wilson says the information about his wife -- Valerie Plame Wilson -- was leaked deliberately as retaliation and was part of an effort to silence other critics in the intelligence world.
Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald spent three years investigating that allegation but filed no charges based on the leak itself. He says his work is done except for trying Libby, who resigned after being indicted in October 2005.
Fitzgerald has made clear in court that he wants to keep the larger, political back story out of the trial and focus narrowly on whether Libby lied to his investigators and obstructed the case.
That leaves Libby in the unexpected position of wanting to talk about the whole story of the leak and who else was involved. Libby's lawyers say Plame Wilson's identity was not disclosed because of a grand conspiracy, but rather because of political infighting among the CIA, the White House, and the State Department over intelligence failures on Iraq.
