WASHINGTON, June 2 (UPI) -- A federal judge in Washington rejected a defense motion for access to classified documents in the perjury case against a former White House aide.
U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton ruled that I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the former top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, would stand trial solely on perjury and obstruction of justice charges, and not on charges involving the disclosure of the identity of a CIA agent in 2003.
Libby's lawyers had argued that they needed access to a classified documents. Walton said Libby may only see documents directly related to his efforts at the White House to rebut public criticism by former Ambassador Joseph Wilson about intelligence used to justify the invasion of Iraq, The Washington Post reported.
Libby was indicted in October 2005 for allegedly lying about conversations with three journalists regarding Wilson and Wilson's wife, CIA officer Valerie Plame.
Walton's ruling made clear that the trial will focus exclusively on whether Libby "intentionally lied" to a grand jury and the FBI. He said he would not let the trial become a "forum for debating the accuracy of Ambassador Wilson's statements, the propriety of the Iraq war or related matters leading up to the war, as those events are not the basis for the charged offenses."
