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Friday, January 19, 2007 · Last updated 3:11 p.m. PT
Reporter's notes make way into leak case
WASHINGTON -- A federal judge said Friday that he likely would allow NBC News reporter Andrea Mitchell's notes to be used in the CIA leak trial, setting up another potential fight between journalists and the court in the case.
Mitchell's notes on her conversation with former White House aide "Scooter" Libby have been under subpoena for nearly a year, but U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton had ruled that, because Mitchell was unlikely to testify at trial, her notes would not be released.
Attorneys for I. Lewis Libby said in court Friday that they planned to call Mitchell as a defense witness during his perjury and obstruction trial. Opening arguments are scheduled for Tuesday.
Walton reversed course and ordered attorneys for NBC to be in court Monday to discuss the notes. He added: "I don't see how I can deprive the defense of it."
NBC News spokeswoman Barbara Levin said the agency would have no comment.
Libby is accused of lying to investigators about what he told reporters regarding former CIA operative Valerie Plame, whose husband - former ambassador Joseph Wilson - emerged in 2003 as a vocal critic of the Bush administration's prewar intelligence on Iraq.
Libby told authorities that he learned Plame's identity from reporters, but prosecutors say Libby learned it during a series of high-level conversations about how to refute Wilson's criticisms.
Mitchell's testimony and notes could help Libby's case by describing an atmosphere of tension and finger-pointing within the Bush administration regarding intelligence issues on Iraq. That could bolster Libby's claims about a hectic and tumultuous climate in which he could not accurately remember certain conversations.
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