[JURIST] US special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald [official website; JURIST news archive] argued in court papers filed Monday with the US District Court for the District of Columbia that he should not be required to explain to jurors in the case of former vice-presidential aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby [defense website] why no one has been indicted for actually leaking the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame [JURIST news archive]. Libby faces perjury and obstruction of justice charges [indictment text, PDF] in connection with the case, but no formal legal action has been taken against former State Department official Richard Armitage [JURIST news archive], who has admitted to being the source of the leak to columnist Robert Novak.

Fitzgerald said without naming Armitage that requiring him to address the subject of the leak charges would distract jurors from the specific issues in the case and in any event was irrelevant to the question of Libby's guilt or innocence on the charges laid. AP has more.