Libby's Troubles

The former White House spokesman Ari Fleischer today contradicted the account of I. Lewis Libby Jr., Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, that Mr. Libby first learned of a C.I.A. agent's identity on July 10, 2003.

Mr. Fleischer, testifying in Mr. Libby's trial under a grant of immunity, said Mr. Libby told him over lunch on July 7, 2003, that the wife of a critic of President Bush's Iraq policy worked for the Central Intelligence Agency.

"This is hush-hush," Mr. Fleischer recalled Mr. Libby as saying in effect. "This is on the Q.T. Not many people know about this."