It has all the ingredients of a tantalising Washington courtroom drama: a sitting vice-president testifying for the first time, suspicions of a cover-up of a White House effort to discredit a critic of the Iraq war, a mysterious mission to Africa by a flamboyant ambassador and the outing of a CIA agent.

Jury selection begins on Tuesday in the perjury trial of Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the former chief of staff to Dick Cheney, the vice-president. To liberal anti-war critics, it is not just Mr Libby who will be in the dock. He is the public face of a prosecution that centres on how the White House built the case for war, choreographing efforts to silence critics and manipulating the media with selective classified leaks of Iraq’s nuclear programme.