Fitzgerald is trying to hide information from Libby’s defense team which probably blows his charges against Libby out the window:

Lawyers for Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff asked a federal judge on Thursday to order the prosecutor in the C.I.A. leak case to turn over all documents in his possession related to what journalists knew from any source about the intelligence officer at the heart of the case.

The lawyers for the former chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby Jr., said in their motion that the prosecutor, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, had refused to turn over to the defense documents that would shed light on whether any reporter knew about the C.I.A. officer, Valerie Wilson, before her name was first disclosed in a newspaper column on July 14, 2003.

Mr. Libby’s lawyers said in their motion that “the prosecution invoked an extraordinarily narrow conception of its disclosure obligations.” The prosecutor turned over, the defense said, only documents related to Mr. Libby’s contacts with reporters, refusing to turn over documents about what these and other reporters had learned about Ms. Wilson from other sources.

This can only mean Fitzgerald has a weak case. Why else withold this information? I have stated that Kristof and Pincus blew their sources, Valerie and Joe Wilson, in their first stories by (a) connecting the Niger forgeries with Joe’s trip to Niger (which is impossible) and (b) the fact they both claim to have sources at the debriefing – which it turns out was at the Wilson home and there were only four people present. This tidbit came out a year later in the Senate report on the matter. The other two people there besides Joe and Val testified under oath there was no discussion of Niger forgeries at the debreifing.

My guess is they are not likely sources to Pincus and Kristof and they would probably not agree to the forgeries angle that permeated the initial stories. Since many reporters were talking to Joe, and Valerie was his back up for the debreifing, then it is likely it was common knowledge in the DC journalistic circles who Valerie was and where she worked.

The fact that Fitzgerald is now making lame excuses not to turn over ALL discussions about Valerie we can understand why Libby is going to have a great time taking apart the liars in the government and their media propagandists.

The defense team said that such documents were highly relevant as Mr. Libby’s lawyers sought to find out “the identity of all reporters who knew that Ms. Wilson worked for the C.I.A., and to discover when they learned such information, from whom they learned it and whether they disclosed it further after learning it.”

What is really pathetic about this act by Fitzgerald his entire investigation was meant to find out how Valerie’s name got in the papers. It is probably the case Valerie herself leaked it (which is why no one broke the law) and it is also probably the case Fitzgerald is going to ruin his professional credibility over this witch hunt he is on. This will be an interesting trial to say the least.

Tom Maguire has more on this matter here.