Libby Update: “Great Stuff” To Be Released

Let the media frenzy begin:

The federal judge presiding over the trial of I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby ruled this morning that the public is entitled to hear audiotapes of Libby’s testimony before the grand jury that investigated the 2003 leak of an undercover CIA officer’s identity….

Defense attorney William H. Jeffress Jr. argued this morning that access to Libby’s grand jury testimony by the public and the press should be restricted to written transcripts, not the tapes themselves.

“It is great stuff, and all of the radio stations and television stations will be broadcasting soundbites,” Jeffress said. “There will be commentary.”

Jeffress noted that the judge has warned jurors to avoid all news during the trial. Still, Jeffress said, the news generated by the tapes — and the public buzz about them — could be so extreme that there was a risk jurors could accidentally encounter it, perhaps while riding buses or the Metro.