Essentially, the Judge says he believes Libby's memory defense requires only a description of the subject matter of the daily briefings and documents attached to them, not the entire documents. He also says the relevant time period is not the year of briefings Libby had asked for but only three short time intervals: (1) when he spoke to Miller, Cooper and Russert, (2) when he was interviewed by FBI investigators and (3) when he testified before the grand jury.

The judge suggests that two days leeway on each side of (2) and (3) should suffice.

The Order asks Fitzgerald to advise the Court whether he can create the subject matter summaries and how much time and resources the compilation would require.

Bottom line: Libby is going to get a fraction of what he wanted, if that.

This judge is going to keep the trial to the issue of whether Libby lied, and not let him go off on a fishing expedition into who else may have leaked the information on Valerie Plame. I think Libby has boxed himself in on his memory defense. He now has a huge burden to show that he was so preoccupied with other matters on six or seven different occasions that he couldn't accurately remember what he told or was told by Miller, Cooper and Russert. It's almost like using the space cadet defense many drug defendants offer, rarely sucessfully.

Speaking of Cheney, if today's rumor that Cheney may resign a few months after the November elections is true, he may be feeling more heat from Fitzgerald than we know about. I'm not convinced Libby will let his lawyers call Cheney as a witness at trial. He's too loyal to Cheney for that. I don't see why the Government would want to call him either.

I think Fitz is getting information from cooperating witnesses inside the White House, State Department and CIA that could lead to a second round of indictments....and Cheney's in Fitzgerald's line of sight.

[Graphic created exclusively for TalkLeft by CL.]