New Maneuvers in Case Against Scooter Libby
PHILLIPS: New maneuvers in the case against the former top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney. Lewis Libby is back in court today. Libby, you may recall, is accused of lying about the leak of a CIA operative's identity. He resigned his White House post after he was indicted last fall. And CNN's Brian Todd is standing by at the federal courthouse in Washington to give us an idea of what's happening now -- Brian.</s>BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, a little bit of news to report. Just a few minutes ago, Lewis Scooter Libby arrived here at U.S. District Court. Not a surprise. He's been here for just about every other hearing in this case. And here's what's going to go on about 40, 45 minutes from now. His attorneys, the defense, is expected to ask the judge, Reggie Walton, to order Patrick Fitzgerald, the special prosecutor, to release some key classified documents, nearly 300 so-called presidential daily briefings, dating from May of 2003 to March of 2004. These presidential daily briefings. They call them PDBs, they are the very highly classified intelligence briefings that the president gets just about every day. Now, why do they want these released to scooter Libby's defense team? Well, the defense claims that this is going to prove that Libby was distracted. As he testified before the grand jury during that timeframe, distracted by matters of national security. Again, the timeframe we're talking about, May of 2003 to March of 2004, very key timeframe in the Iraq War and other matters, and the defense is going to claim that Mr. Libby was distracted by those matters of national security. At the time he was also testifying before the grand jury and to investigators, and therefore unclear necessarily about the context in which he was to speak to reporters or in which he spoke to reporters. The prosecution has already opposed all of this on the grounds of national security and executive privilege. They're expected to argue those matters in court before Judge Reggie Walton, as I say, in about 40 minutes -- Fredricka.</s>WHITFIELD: And, Brian, the prosecutors also have a problem with the special counsel, Patrick Fitzgerald, also, right? Saying that he was not appointed by the White House, and so thereby, he may have overstepped his bounds?</s>TODD: Well, essentially, yes, what we're talking about in this 40-page ream of documents here. This is a motion to dismiss the charges against Scooter Libby. This was filed yesterday, and essentially it contends that the special counsel, Mr. Fitzgerald, may not have been appointed in a way that complied with procedure. Now, understand that context, the special counsel in all of these cases, here's the procedure. He or she is appointed by the president. He or she has to be confirmed by the president. He or she has to answer to top Justice officials whenever they want to bring an indictment or grant immunity. None of those things have occurred in the case of Mr. Fitzgerald. He was appointed by an acting attorney general. He was never confirmed by the Senate. He has had sweeping power in this case to essentially do as he chooses. And the defense is claiming this has gone against procedure.</s>WHITFIELD: Interesting. All right, Brian Todd, thanks so much, in the nation's Capitol.</s>TODD: Thank you.</s>WHITFIELD: Well, a little Olympic update. Move over Picabo Street, here comes Julia Mancuso. The 21-year-old, who is a Californian, she is golden. After flying down the slope in blinding snow, her victory in the giant slalom was her first in a major race. It also brought the U.S. women their first Olympic alpine medal since Street, Picabo Street, won gold back in 1998. And as promised, Mancuso's ski tech followed her down the slope in celebration minus the ski pants just to make the photo interesting. The U.S. men's curling team was much more subdued. After finally reaching the medal podium themselves. Cheered on by their fans, they held off Great Britain for the bronze. The talk in Torino is about another medals battle, which has given figure skating a new champion. Japan's Shizuka Arakawa skated a clean and elegant final program to win her country's first medal of the Games and Japan's first Olympic gold in that sport. The favorite, reigning world champion Irina Slutskaya skating last and tumbled to third. American Sasha Cohen also literally fell short of her Olympic dream. Afterwards, she told CNN she was just thrilled she didn't give up.</s>SASHA COHEN, SILVER MEDAL, FIGURE SKATING: It's very nice after competing at this level and working hard for so many years to take home an Olympic medal. It's part of a dream, and, you know, I think it's a little gift for persevering through a lot of hard times over a lot of years, and I'm very thankful.</s>WHITFIELD: And next on LIVE FROM, a search for the culprits behind a record heist is a darling plot -- or rather a daring plot beginning to come unraveled? New details on the developing story right after this. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com