Judge to hear arguments on Libby tapes

[Ron Burgundy]

AP - Former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's right to a fair trial might be jeopardized if tapes of his grand jury testimony are released to the public, his attorneys say.

A federal judge is scheduled to hear arguments Monday morning on whether to release Libby's tapes after they are played in court. Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald successfully fought to enter the tapes into evidence and plans to play about eight hours of Libby's closed-door testimony regarding the leak of a CIA operative's name.

U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton has ordered that trial evidence be released after each court session. But Libby's lawyers say grand jury testimony — the sworn statements Libby gave investigations about his conversations with Vice President Dick Cheney and journalists — is too sensitive to be released.

The tapes would almost certainly be played on television, radio and the Internet. Jurors are under court order to avoid such media but defense attorneys say that's not enough.

"Although it cannot be assumed that the jury will ignore the court's warnings to pay no attention to reports on this case that appear in the news media, likewise it cannot be ignored that this is a politically charged trial taking place in the most politically aware city in the nation," attorneys wrote in court documents this weekend. "Press scrutiny has been intense and the risk of inadvertent taint is not insignificant."

Attorneys for more than a dozen news organizations, including The Associated Press, argue that Libby's own words are far less prejudicial than evidence that has been released in other cases, including 911 calls from inside the World Trade Center, the FBI tapes in the Abscam investigation and mob wiretap tapes.

Walton said he will hear arguments on the issue before defense attorneys resume cross-examining the lead FBI agent in the case. Fitzgerald plans to start playing the tapes Monday.

In the tapes, Libby discusses conversations he had regarding Valerie Plame, the wife of a prominent Iraq war critic, former ambassador Joseph Wilson. Plame's identity was leaked to reporters in 2003.

Nobody was charged with the leak. Fitzgerald said Libby learned Plame's identity from Cheney and discussed it with journalists. Libby says he forgot about his conversation with Cheney and, when he heard about Plame from NBC reporter Tim Russert weeks later, it struck him as new information.

Fitzgerald says Libby concocted that story to protect himself from prosecution because repeating rumors from reporters is less serious than repeating sensitive information from Cheney.

The tapes are expected to take up much of Monday and part of Tuesday. Russert is scheduled to be Fitzgerald's last witness, most likely late Tuesday.

source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070205/ap_on_go_pr_wh/cia_leak_trial [link]