WASHINGTON, Feb. 23 (UPI) -- Attorneys for former White House aide I. Lewis Libby say they need to see confidential presidential security briefings to prepare their client's defense.
Libby, a former chief of staff for Vice President Dick Cheney, has been charged with perjury, making false statements and obstructing justice by a grand jury looking into the leaking of a covert CIA operative's name.
His lawyers say any misstatements Libby may have made to either the grand jury or the FBI were the result of a mistake or faulty memory and not intentional, The Washington Post reported. Libby, a court filing says, even apologized to a grand jury hearing in 2004 that his memory could be in error because of the amount of security work he did in the White House, the newspaper said.
The defense has asked for hundreds of pages of classified briefings to show that Libby did not intentionally lie about talking with members of the media about the CIA agent.
Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, in a court filing, characterized the request as "breathtaking" and said it was an attempt to throw the prosecution off, the Post said.
Libby's trial is set for next January.
