Martin is questioned about the phone call between Libby and Cooper on July 12. She did not take notes or listen closely to the entire conversation. She cannot for example, remember hearing Libby say the words “reporters are saying…” to Cooper.

Testimony then turns to four sets of ‘talking points’ Martin was using to provide guidance for Administration officials. Libby saw all of the talking points, and never recommended adding the fact that Valerie Plame worked at CIA to any of them. Martin did not discuss Plame’s CIA work with Libby either.

Martin is then questioned about a report by Andrea Mitchell of NBC News that concerned allegations that the White House was blaming CIA for the ’sixteen words” that appeared in the State of the Union address, and about “fingerpointing.” Not surprisingly, CIA head George Tenet was said to be upset at the blame being directed at his agency. Deputy National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley was playing go-between between Tenet and the Vice President’s office (including Scooter Libby) concerning the issue, as the two sides tried to hammer out the language for a statement by Tenet about the controversy.

Had President Bush made an error in the SOTU speech? Tenet’s statement centered around addressing that issue–and was not designed to be a response to any allegations about the Vice President’s office and its possible involvement in the matter.

Martin is then questioned about how busy Libby was at the time, and his involvement in national security and many other unrelated matters.

Martin admits she had been ‘uncomfortable’ about Libby talking to Andrea Mitchell about the National Intelligence Estimate — because she was unaware that the NIE had been declassified and Libby was thus permitted to talk about it to reporters like Mitchell.

She also recommended that Libby speak to Matt Cooper of Time, because he was going to write a story “and we should be in the story” –in other words, to participate actively by speaking to Cooper.

A short recess follows after the defense has no more questions for Ms. Martin.

Testimony resumes with prosecutor Fitzgerald re-examining Martin to clarify some of her remarks last week when questioned by defense attorney Ted Wells. She was asked, for example, about her knowledge if any of meetings between Libby and Judith Miller of the New York Times–she had none. She was also unaware that the NIE had been declassifed, as noted earlier. She was ‘not in the loop’ when VP Cheney and his aide Scooter Libby were discussing what to say to the press.

She also did not hear Libby mention that Plame worked for the CIA in his conversation with Matt Cooper of Time Magazine, nor did she have any personal knowledge of Libby speaking of the matter with Judith Miller, or government officials — including CIA employees — who testified last week.

After a recess, Judge Walton notes that there is no dispute that the NIE had been declassified before Libby disclosed it on July 8, 2003 to Andrea Mitchell of NBC News — although Ms. Martin was unaware of that at the time. He also confirms with Martin that she knew and conveyed that Valerie Plame worked with CIA and was an agent.

With no further questions, Martin is dismissed. In sum, it appears that today’s testimony by Martin did little to undo the damage to the defense of her testimony last week.

Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer is called next. His testimony follows an unusual immunity-from-prosecution deal. Fleischer, who was chief White House spokesman for the first 2 1/2 years of President Bush’s administration, is expected to be a key witness for the prosecution. As noted earlier, Judge Walton has ruled that Fleischer’s agreement with prosecutors is not relevant to Libby’s defense. Libby’s attorneys wondered if Fleischer had promised to deliver specific testimony against Libby in exchange for the deal, and wanted to question Fleischer’s credibility. (Prosecutors usually require at least an informal idea of what a witness will say before granting immunity, but Special Prosecutor Fitzgerald says he gave Fleischer immunity without knowing any such specifics.) After Fitzgerald gave Judge Walton a summary of his conversations with Fleischer’s attorneys, Walton ruled that that the immunity agreement didn’t need to be disclosed to Libby’s attorneys.