NBC's Russert says he didn't tell Libby about CIA officer

NBC News reporter Tim Russert said Monday that he did not tell vice presidential aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby that a prominent war critic's wife worked at the CIA, as Libby has claimed.

Russert, who spoke in Tulsa and Oklahoma City at functions sponsored by Oklahoma State University's Spears School of Business, said he expects to be called to testify in Libby's ongoing federal perjury and obstruction trial in Washington.

Libby's indictment grew out of conversations he had with Russert, Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper and former New York Times reporter Judith Miller in June and July 2003. Libby claimed any information he had about CIA operative Valerie Plame came from Russert and other reporters.

"I was not and never have been the recipient of the leak," Russert said. "Everyone acknowledges that. The question is, when Libby called me, what did he say? He called in protest to something he had seen on MSNBC 'Hardball,' and that was the extent of it."

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