WASHINGTON (CNN) — A former White House spokesman testified Monday that I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby informed him about a CIA operative three days before Libby told investigators he had learned her identity from a reporter.

Ari Fleischer said the revelation came during a June 7, 2003, lunch as he and Libby talked about Fleischer’s departure as President Bush’s press secretary. Fleischer held the job from 2001-2003.

The timing is crucial since Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff, is accused of lying about when he learned that administration critic Joseph Wilson was married to CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson. (Watch how the timeline is key

Libby is charged with lying to the FBI and a grand jury investigating who leaked the CIA employee’s identity to reporters in 2003. (Full story)

No one has been charged with leaking her name.

Libby has said that he first got the information from Tim Russert of NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Libby told a grand jury that he believed he learned Plame’s identity from Russert on July 10, 2003, according to The Associated Press.

His attorneys blame bad memory for any discrepancies in what he told investigators and the grand jury and say he may have been distracted by urgent national security matters.

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