Washington ? The federal judge who oversaw the first major terror trial after Sept. 11 has been interviewed by FBI agents investigating allegations of misconduct in the case, a rare instance in which a jurist has become a witness in a case he continues to preside over.

U.S. District Judge Gerald Rosen, who presided over the trial of four Detroit men accused of operating a terror cell, also told The Associated Press in an interview Friday he had talked to and met with reporters covering the case despite gag orders he had imposed on lawyers and prosecutors.

Rosen was interviewed two weeks ago for about three hours by agents in the FBI’s public integrity section who are investigating allegations that prosecutors withheld documents or leaked sensitive information.

Though the trial ended a year ago, Rosen continues to preside over the case because the investigations, as well as appeals by three of the defendants, have thrown the convictions into doubt. One of Rosen’s rulings spurred the internal investigation by the FBI agents.

Rosen, an appointee of the first President Bush, said Friday he was interviewed by the agents on June 17 but “I’m not going to talk about it.”

The judge also confirmed he had talked to several reporters despite having imposed gag orders to stop leaks in the case.

Rosen even had threatened to force Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft to come to Detroit to explain why he violated the gag order by commenting generally on the case during a news conference.

“Look, I know where the lines are,” Rosen said about his own contacts with reporters. He confirmed he met around the time of his FBI interview last month with a Detroit reporter, who later wrote on details of the case quoting courthouse sources.

Asked whether he was one of those sources, Rosen said, “Anything I discussed with him had nothing to do with the case.”

Rosen said he occasionally had talked to reporters that he trusted during cases, including the terror trial, to make sure they understood what occurred in his courtroom and report it correctly.