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Feds get subpoenas in CIA leak case

Federal prosecutors obtained 100 blank subpoenas last week for use in the upcoming trial of a CIA officer accused of leaking top-secret information to New York Times reporter James Risen.

The move clears the way for the Justice Department to proceed with a new review of whether Risen should be subpoenaed to testify at the trial of Jeffrey Sterling, the CIA employee accused of disclosing details of a CIA effort to set back Iran's nuclear program.

Sterling, who has entered not guilty pleas, is currently set to stand trial in January on a 10 felony-count indictment.

A lawyer for Risen, Joel Kurtzberg, said Tuesday that the Times reporter hasn't been served with one of the new subpoenas. Risen has said he will not identify his sources regardless of what the legal system does.

A spokesperson for prosecutors didn't respond to a request for comment on the raft of subpoenas issued Friday by the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va. (The court notice of the subpoenas' issuance is posted here.)

Senior Justice Department officials have yet to receive a request to approve a new subpoena for Risen, who was twice subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury investigating Sterling and once subpoenaed for an earlier trial that never took place, a DOJ official told POLITICO Tuesday.

U.S. District Court Judge Leonie Brinkema quashed two of those earlier subpoenas after Risen claimed a reporter's privilege allowed him not to testify about his sources. (One of the subpoenas expired when the grand jury which issued it expired.)

A federal appeals court ultimately overturned Brinkema's decision on the trial subpoena, ruling that no reporter's privilege exists in the federal system. The Supreme Court turned down Risen's plea to take up the issue.

Attorney General Eric Holder is expected to make the final decision on a new subpoena for Risen. Last year, Holder changed Justice Department rules in ways that make it more difficult for prosecutors to attempt to force testimony from journalists. The attorney general has declined to comment directly on Risen's situation, but has repeatedly indicated that he will not seek to jail any journalist engaged in ordinary newsgathering activities.