AIPAC judge approve Rice subpoena

The judge in the AIPAC classified information case approved a subpoena for Condoleezza Rice based on a defense claim that she was an informant.

In a pretrial hearing Friday in the case against Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman, former lobbyists for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Judge T.S. Ellis II approved subpoenas for the secretary of state; William Burns, the ambassador to Moscow; David Satterfield, the deputy ambassador to Iraq; and Anthony Zinni, a retired general who was President Bush’s envoy to Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in 2001-2002.

Lawyer Abbe Lowell told the judge that Rice had delivered information to Rosen similar to the allegedly classified information at the center of the indictment. Rice was the national security adviser to the White House during the period covered in the indictment – 2002-2004 -, and her rank would undermine the prosecution’s claim that Rosen and Weissman should have understood that lower-ranked officials were not authorized to feed them such information.

Judge Ellis turned down a defense request to order the deposition of three Israeli diplomats identified in the indictment, saying he lacked the authority to do so. Rosen and Weissman allegedly relayed defense information to the diplomats.