WASHINGTON (AP) - A juror was dismissed from the trial of former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby on Monday after court officials learned she had been exposed to information about the case over the weekend. U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton ordered the juror removed, saying "what she had exposure to obviously disqualifies her." The judge declined to say what information the juror had seen.
Walton said the remaining jurors had not been tainted. He said he would allow deliberations to continue with 11 jurors rather than calling on one of two alternate jurors.
"They should continue with their deliberations and I will emphasize again the importance of not having contact with any outside information," Walton said.
Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald asked that Walton call on one of two alternates, both women, who sat through the trial and are on standby. Walton said that would require deliberations to begin fresh and said he didn't want to "throw away two and a half days."
The woman who was dismissed from jury is an art history expert and scholar who formerly served as a curator of prints at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
