The Daily Background
| News organizations prepared to fight for release of Libby tapes
by Arlen Parsa
News organizations will fight to make Lewis Libby’s grand jury testimony public, a new report from the Associated Press indicates. Just getting the tapes allowed in testimony was a task Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald took on personally, with Team Libby fighting it all the way. Says the AP: “Trial evidence is normally public and all exhibits in Libby’s case have been made public so far. Even though Fitzgerald successfully fought to get Libby’s full grand jury testimony admitted into evidence, Libby’s attorneys say the audiotapes should not be released outside the courtroom.”
If the tapes are released, they could be broadcast on television news programs, radio stations and the Internet. U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton said he worried that would sensationalize an already public trial.
Attorneys for The Associated Press and a dozen other news organizations said they would challenge any effort to seal the tapes. Court papers were to be filed Friday afternoon. Walton said he would consider the matter over the weekend.
This sort of thing makes me wonder why Team Libby is so desperate to stop the tapes from being made public (and they are pretty nervous about it). I mean, the only people whose opinions ultimately matter is the jury and the judge- not anybody outside of the courtroom.
And the people inside the courtroom will already be hearing the testimony anyways, so what is the big deal if it’s released to the public? It’s not like this is a situation where the jury will have any extra information that they wouldn’t have had otherwise.
