FCC Chairman’s Wife Testifies in Libby Trial

By Multi Channel News Staff -- Multichannel News, 1/25/2007 9:58:00 AM MT

Cathie Martin, wife of Federal Communications Commission chairman Kevin Martin, testified Thursday at the perjury trial of I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, offering a version of events that appeared to undermine her former colleague’s defense, according to The New York Times.

Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff, was indicted for lying in connection with the grand jury probe into how CIA operative Valerie Plame’s cover was blown. Libby said he first learned about Plame’s CIA job from a journalist, but Cathie Martin testified that she had made Libby aware of Plame before Libby’s meeting with the journalist.

“Ms. Martin’s testimony was damaging for Mr. Libby in two respects,” the Times reported. “She bolstered the prosecution’s assertion that Mr. Libby was fully aware of Ms. Wilson’s identity from a number of administration officials, and did not first learn about her from reporters, as he claims. Perhaps more important, she testified as a former close colleague of Mr. Libby’s, and demonstrated her familiarity with him by repeatedly referring to him by his nickname, `Scooter.’”

Reuters reported that Kevin Martin watched his wife’s testimony from the front row.

Martin, who met her husband at Harvard Law School, was Cheney’s spokeswoman in 2003 but no longer works in Cheney’s office. She is deputy director of communications for policy and planning in the White House.