I'm not surprised, except for the part about him being convicted
on one of the Cooper charges (lying to the grand jury) while being
acquitted on the other (lying to the FBI). (NOTE: The
parentheticals in that sentence were erroneously reversed before.
They're correct now.) Either his account of the conversation
with Cooper was a lie or it wasn't, one would think. But as
I
said when the indictment came down, the obstruction charge was
pretty strong. The Russert charge by itself wasn't that strong
(Libby said they discussed Wilson, Russert said they didn't), but I
suppose it's not surprising that the Russert-charge convictions
were part of the package since the most damning piece of the
obstruction charge was something Libby said about the Russert
conversation (he said was surprised to hear about Wilson's wife
working at the CIA -- when the evidence showed he'd discussed that
in nine conversations prior to talking with Russert).
UPDATE: Andy McCarthy clears up why Libby would be
acquitted on the lying-to-the-FBI-about-Cooper count while being
convicted on the lying-to-the-grand-jury-about-Cooper count:
The FBI's procedure is to take notes of interviews, not
record them. In the grand jury, there is always at least a
stenographer, and sometimes a videotape. Juries will often give the
benefit of the doubt to a defendant on false statements, especially
if the agents notes or independent recollection are not thorough.
It looks like that's what happened here on the acquitted count. By
contrast, in the grand jury, there is not uncertainty about what
words were said (although there may be lots of uncertainty about
meaning and intent).