Libby Trial Date Set for January 2007
Edwin Chen
"We are very happy with the trial date," Theodore Wells, Libby's lawyer, said after today's court hearing. "The Jan. 8 date will permit us the time we need to prepare our defense," he said, adding his client was "totally innocent."
Special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald launched the investigation after the CIA operative, Valerie Plame, was identified in the news media in 2003. At the time, her husband, Joseph C. Wilson IV, a former ambassador, had emerged as a prominent critic of the manner in which the Bush Administration had used intelligence to build a case to launch the Iraq war.
Libby, who resigned after being indicted in late October, attended today's hearing, which lasted about 45 minutes, but said little.
The judge, Reggie Walton, said he expected jury selection to take a few days. And lawyers for both sides said they expected the trial to last about a month.
Still at issue is whether Fitzgerald has turned over all the relevant documents being sought by the defense. The prosecutor said the process was "99% complete," including the delivery of 1,250 pages to the defense team this week. But Wells said he believed that Fitzgerald still had "thousands and thousands and thousands of pages" in documents that should be turned over.
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