Enron CEO looks to FBI notes for appeal

HOUSTON, March 12 (UPI) -- Lawyers for jailed former Enron Chief Executive Officer Jeff Skilling said Wednesday notes withheld during his trial provide evidence for an appeal.

Lead trial lawyer Daniel Petrocelli said Federal Bureau of Investigation summaries of interviews with Enron's former financial chief, Andrew Fastow, were incomplete and withheld evidence that could clear his client's name.

FBI agents interviewed Fastow for hundreds of hours, amassing 400 pages of notes, the Houston Chronicle reported.

Prosecutors handed Skilling's legal team summaries, but withheld the notes, which is customary. U.S. District Judge Sim Lake, who presided over the case, rejected repeated requests to have the notes surrendered.

The 5th District Court of Appeals then reversed that ruling, but Petrocelli received the notes after the deadline for an appeal had passed, the report said.

Now with the notes, Petrocelli says they contain, "a sledgehammer that destroys Fastow's testimony."