http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16156279Limited intellgence details decision likely eliminates prospect of 'graymail'
Haraz N. Ghanbari / AP file Both sides will be allowed to discuss limited intelligence details in the trial of former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, who is facing charges in relation to the investigation of the leak of a CIA operative's name.
Updated: 12:33 p.m. CT Dec 11, 2006
WASHINGTON - A federal judge has accepted a series of redactions and substitutions proposed by Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald - to be provided to I Lewis "Scooter" Libby's defense team - which will limit what Libby can share with jurors at his upcoming trial on some of the specifics of his top-secret White House briefings.
U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton also ordered the review by national security agencies of classified documents requested by Libby - Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff - for his defense of perjury and obstruction charges in the Valerie Plame, CIA/Leak case, must be completed by December 22.
Judge Walton, in his ruling, writes that the substitutions can provide Libby, "substantially the same ability to make his defense as would disclosure of the specific classified information."
Libby's graymail gambit defeated?
The new substitutions submitted by Fitzgerald may also effectively end what prosecutors say was Libby's attempt to try to get the case dismissed by demanding so much sensitive information that the government would have no choice but to refuse. The legal gambit is called "graymail."
Court records released recently offered the first glimpse at the type of classified information Libby wants to share with jurors.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/12/11/cia.leak.ap/Ruling on intelligence keeps CIA leak trial on track
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