[Cboldt]

But he had to have already known about Plame to specifically ask the CIA for an authoritative answer about her. The perjury charges are for not disclosing the original source where he first learned about Wilson's wife. Libby can't learn something that he already knew, which is really the premise of Fitzgerald's case.

The perjury charges are laid out with specificity, and amount to the difference between testifying that he knew for a fact (which he did, but didn't admit); and hearing it as a rumor, which is the jist of Libby's testimony - "All I heard was rumors from reporters."

[counterpunch]

But his answers were dependent on the timeframe in question. Of course at some point he knew for a fact that Plame worked for the CIA. We all knew that for a fact before Libby was ever indicted. In Libby's statement, during the timeframe in question, he had at that time only heard rumors from reporters, as opposed to having known about it already through his government clearance.