Libby jury resolves question, calls it a day

Story Highlights

• NEW: Trial will continue Thursday after jurors answer own question
• Jury sent note to the judge regarding Lewis Libby's talk with Time reporter
• Libby is fighting a five-count indictment for allegedly lying to investigators

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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Jurors in the criminal trial of Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff told the judge Wednesday that they had resolved a question about one of the charges.

The jury's question to U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton was: "Is the charge that the statement was made, or the content of the statement itself?"

It's unknown what statement the jury was referring to.

They resumed their deliberations, which have been going on for a week and ended the day without a verdict. The trial will continue Thursday.

The jury is deliberating the fate of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, who is fighting a five-count indictment for allegedly lying to investigators about his knowledge of leaks of the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame.

On Tuesday the jury sent a note to Walton, asking him to explain one of the charges. The question concerned what Libby told the FBI about a conversation with Matthew Cooper of Time magazine.

The jury asked whether the charge was about the content of the conversation, or about whether it took place at all.

Walton sent a note back, asking the jurors to clarify what they were asking.

Apparently, they answered their own question.

They returned a note that said, "After further discussion, we are clear on what we need to do. No further clarification needed. Thank you. We apologize."

The jury has sent out three other notes since it began deliberating last week.

One was a request for office supplies such as a flip-chart and notepads.

A second note involved a request for pictures of witnesses who testified in the trial, which began January 23.

The third note was notification that a juror had inappropriately obtained information that disqualified her from continuing to serve. (Full story)

"They [jurors] seem to be asking whether the government had to prove both that he [Libby] made the statement and that it was a lie. Obviously, the government has to prove both," said CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin.

"It's a reasonable question, although the answer is pretty clear, as the jury seemed to recognize."

The note was handed up to the judge at the end of the jury's fourth full day of deliberations, and was announced after the panel had been taken from the courthouse by U.S. marshals for the evening.

Libby, who also was national security adviser to Cheney, faces one count of obstruction of justice, two counts of perjury and two counts of making false statements to the FBI and a grand jury investigating how Plame was outed.

To disclose classified information knowingly to unauthorized recipients is a crime, and Plame's position was classified, but Libby is not accused of exposing her.

If convicted on all five counts, Libby, 56, could be sentenced to 30 years in prison and fined $1.25 million.

Prosecutors contend Libby disclosed Plame's covert profession to reporters as part of a plan to discredit her husband, Joseph Wilson, a former ambassador who alleged that the Bush administration twisted some intelligence in the run-up to the Iraq war.

Wilson, who conducted a CIA-sponsored trip to Niger, wrote in a July 2003 New York Times editorial that he found no evidence Iraq sought to buy uranium from the African nation, as the Bush administration claimed.

CNN's Paul Courson contributed to this report.

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