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Libby Hearing Today on Motion to Compel Documents

While lawyers for Lewis "Scooter" Libby yesterday moved to dismiss the Indictment against him claiming irregularities with the appointment of special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, the Judge yesterday issued an order asking both sides for more information related to Libby's motion to compel documents, scheduled to be heard today.

In response to the court order, this morning Libby's attorneys filed this response. They also asked to supplement the record with this letter from Kathleen Kedian, deputy special counsel.

One thing I noted in a brief review of the Libby's pleadings on the document issue is the continued emphasis on Libby's faulty memory. Team Libby says it has spent months researching the principles of memory. It sounds like there could be a battle royale at trial between psychological memory experts discussing the three phases of memory -- the acquisition stage, the storage phase and the retrieval phase. I'm looking forward to this, having studied it extensively with two of the nation's leading experts, Elizabeth Loftus and Gary Wells, as it relates to eyewitness identification.

As for Libby's motion to dismiss, Reddhedd at Firedoglake analyzes it here and here.

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  • Sounds like we're about to be abused with (junk) science in the courtroom. Is it dangerous to make the assumption that in an expensive, high-profile case such as this, that all the witnesses will be scientists, have impeccable credentials, have large bodies of peer reviewed papers, and be recognized as experts by their peers? Oh and ethical too? I would find it immensely helpful if you could spare some time and explain Daubert and all sorts of issues around the use of science and psychology in the courtroom.

    "I would find it immensely helpful if you could spare some time and explain Daubert and all sorts of issues around the use of science and psychology in the courtroom."
    I lecture to lawyers extensively on the topics of daubert and memory, and how to get a memory expert admitted at trial. I'll upload some of my outlines explaining it all over the weekend. I am all in favor of the jury hearing about the principles of memory. They need to know what factors influence it and they won't learn it anywhere else. I'm skeptical as to how it can work in Libby's favor given the circumstances of his case. But I'll try to keep an open mind until I see more of his theory.

    Thank you, that would be really terrific.