I've been skimming the
GOVERNMENT’S RESPONSE TO DEFENDANT’S MEMORANDUM CONCERNING ADMISSIBILITY OF DOCUMENTS ON DEFENDANT’S CONSOLIDATED § 5 NOTICE - listed here
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2228504 (love ya stopthebleeding)
From what I barely know of the case, at this time, Libby is trying to enter presidential PDBs and TTMs (Terrorist Threat Matrices) as defense evidence. The kicker being that these are classified documents and if the judge decides they are too sensitive to be revealed in trial, that could put the kibosh on Fitzgerald's case.
Here's some of team Fitzgerald's argument against team Libby's request to enter these documents into evidence:
Of course, if the designated documents are offered solely for a non-hearsay purpose, Fed. R.
Evid. 801©, then the government will have no hearsay objection; however, it may still object to the
admission of the documents on relevancy, Rule 403, executive privilege, or any other applicable
grounds. With respect to documents offered for the truth of the matters asserted therein, the
government agrees in principle with some of the legal principles set forth in defendant’s
memorandum, but disagrees with others. As demonstrated below, the contents of the Presidential
Daily Briefs (PDBs) and Terrorist Threat Matrices (TTMs) do not fall within any of the hearsay
exceptions proposed by defendant, and thus would not be admissible for their truth, even if any of
them were deemed relevant and not unfairly prejudicial. In contrast, information contained in
defendant’s notes likely will qualify as present sense impressions or past recollection recorded
(assuming the proper foundation is established) and thus hearsay objections to their admission will
usually be overcome, even though the notes do not, as defendant contends, qualify as business
records or a records of a public agency. Finally, documents related to the Wilson controversy may,
on a document-by-document basis, be admitted if they satisfy the requirements of one or more
hearsay exceptions or are admissible for a limited purpose.also:
ARGUMENT
I. The PDBs/TTMs Are Neither Business Records Nor Public Reports.
and:
Nor do the PDBs or TTMs constitute public records under Rule 803(8)(A), as defendant
contends. Rule 803(8)(A) provides:bonus:
In the case of the PDBs and TTMs, there is no doubt that they are compilations of information received from multiple sources, some of whom are outside the United States government, and may even be trying to deceive the government.My question is this. Is Fitzgerald trying to say these classified documents are hearsay?
heehee. I love his sense of humor. :)