The Defense Rests. And Sobs.
At Time's Swampland blog yesterday, Ana Marie Cox offered some safe bets on what today's coverage of the closing arguments in the Scooter Libby trial would look like. At the top of the list: "At least one reporter will lead with a description of Libby's lawyer [Ted] Wells tearing up as he delivered his last lines."
The results are now in, and descriptions of the sobbing were varied. The Los Angeles Times only insinuated tears, writing that "when Wells finished his remarks with an emotional flourish, Libby stepped over to pat him on the back, as if the attorney, rather than the defendant, was the one in need of consolation."
NBC's "Nightly News," the only evening newscast to do a full story on the trial last night (Washington bureau chief Tim Russert's testimony is at the center of the whole brouhaha, after all) didn't mention the tears explicitly, either. But correspondent Kelly O'Donnell did describe Wells' closing as "fiery" and "passionate."
USA Today, however, went ahead and called Wells "tearful" during his final statements to the jury.
The New York Times went a bit further, writing that Libby's lawyer offered "an intensely emotional defense ending in a choked sob."
A description of the sobbing made it pretty close to the lead in a profile on Wells in the Washington Post: "Then, as he asked the jury to presume Libby's innocence and 'give him back to me,' Wells began to cry. He sat down at the defense table and wiped his eyes. It was a strange moment in a strange case."
The Wall Street Journal's law blog wins the prize, however. There, the tears landed right in the headline of a post on the trial: "Ted Wells Sobs, Jury Poised to Start Deliberations."