Sunday, February 26, 2006
Libby's Team to Subpoena Media
Lawyers for I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby say they soon plan to subpoena reporters and news organizations, and a federal judge has set the stage for a showdown in late April on whether the media would have to comply with the subpoenas in order to afford the former White House aide a fair trial.
According to the Los Angeles Times, U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton also said a special prosecutor would have to turn over hundreds of pages of notes compiled by Libby while he was chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney. But Walton put off a defense request that the prosecutor turn over highly classified presidential daily briefs that Libby received while in the White House.
His lawyers have said the daily briefs were crucial to showing that Libby was immersed in matters of state and didn't intentionally mislead investigators and a grand jury, as the government has alleged.
Libby, 55, was indicted in October on perjury and obstruction charges. Prosecutors contend he lied to authorities about his role in the July 2003 unmasking of CIA operative Valerie Plame. Libby told authorities that he first learned the identity of Plame from a television journalist; the government contends that he in fact deliberately acquired and disseminated information about Plame and her husband, Joseph C. Wilson IV, a former U.S. envoy who had criticized the Bush administration over the Iraq war.
Lawyers for Libby say they have reason to question the accuracy of statements that journalists have made about him to special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the Times reported. They are also seeking to prove that information about Plame was widely known among reporters at the time, and that Libby therefore would have no incentive to lie about his knowledge of her.
Walton set an April 7 deadline for recipients of the subpoenas to respond to whether they intended to comply with them, and a date of April 21 for a hearing to consider objections.
"We want the issue to be joined as quickly as possible," Theodore V. Wells Jr., one of Libby's lawyers, said Friday at a hearing in federal court in Washington. He did not indicate how many reporters or news organizations would be subpoenaed, although he and the rest of the Libby legal team have indicated they would cast a wide net.
Fitzgerald, the U.S. attorney in Chicago who was appointed more than two years ago to investigate whether Plame's identity was disclosed in violation of a federal law protecting covert agents, previously subpoenaed reporters from news organizations including Time magazine and the New York Times.
Those moves triggered a First Amendment battle that went to the Supreme Court, and resulted in one journalist who initially refused to comply, former New York Times correspondent Judith Miller, spending 85 days in jail.
The subpoenas in Libby's case are also likely to touch off a legal battle over competing considerations — the rights of journalists to protect conversations with confidential sources, and the right of defendants to a fair trial. Depending on the scope of the subpoenas, lawyers for Libby might also seek information about individual reporters and their reputation for honesty and accuracy, some media experts have said.
The battles over journalists and classified information have left Walton struggling to keep Libby's trial on track for January 2007.
Lawyers for I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby say they soon plan to subpoena reporters and news organizations, and a federal judge has set the stage for a showdown in late April on whether the media would have to comply with the subpoenas in order to afford the former White House aide a fair trial.
According to the Los Angeles Times, U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton also said a special prosecutor would have to turn over hundreds of pages of notes compiled by Libby while he was chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney. But Walton put off a defense request that the prosecutor turn over highly classified presidential daily briefs that Libby received while in the White House.
His lawyers have said the daily briefs were crucial to showing that Libby was immersed in matters of state and didn't intentionally mislead investigators and a grand jury, as the government has alleged.
Libby, 55, was indicted in October on perjury and obstruction charges. Prosecutors contend he lied to authorities about his role in the July 2003 unmasking of CIA operative Valerie Plame. Libby told authorities that he first learned the identity of Plame from a television journalist; the government contends that he in fact deliberately acquired and disseminated information about Plame and her husband, Joseph C. Wilson IV, a former U.S. envoy who had criticized the Bush administration over the Iraq war.
Lawyers for Libby say they have reason to question the accuracy of statements that journalists have made about him to special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the Times reported. They are also seeking to prove that information about Plame was widely known among reporters at the time, and that Libby therefore would have no incentive to lie about his knowledge of her.
Walton set an April 7 deadline for recipients of the subpoenas to respond to whether they intended to comply with them, and a date of April 21 for a hearing to consider objections.
"We want the issue to be joined as quickly as possible," Theodore V. Wells Jr., one of Libby's lawyers, said Friday at a hearing in federal court in Washington. He did not indicate how many reporters or news organizations would be subpoenaed, although he and the rest of the Libby legal team have indicated they would cast a wide net.
Fitzgerald, the U.S. attorney in Chicago who was appointed more than two years ago to investigate whether Plame's identity was disclosed in violation of a federal law protecting covert agents, previously subpoenaed reporters from news organizations including Time magazine and the New York Times.
Those moves triggered a First Amendment battle that went to the Supreme Court, and resulted in one journalist who initially refused to comply, former New York Times correspondent Judith Miller, spending 85 days in jail.
The subpoenas in Libby's case are also likely to touch off a legal battle over competing considerations — the rights of journalists to protect conversations with confidential sources, and the right of defendants to a fair trial. Depending on the scope of the subpoenas, lawyers for Libby might also seek information about individual reporters and their reputation for honesty and accuracy, some media experts have said.
The battles over journalists and classified information have left Walton struggling to keep Libby's trial on track for January 2007.
