Washington ? The CIA leak case of I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby may be heading for a new battle between the news media and the courts, the second such confrontation triggered by the Valerie Plame affair.

Attorneys for Libby are casting a wide net for information from news organizations for his upcoming criminal trial, subpoenaing documents from The New York Times, Time magazine and three reporters including NBC correspondent Tim Russert.

Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff is entitled to find out what the news media knew about the CIA status of undercover officer Plame before her identity was publicly exposed, Libby’s attorneys have said in court papers.

Conservative columnist Robert Novak named her in a column in July 2003, eight days after Plame’s husband, former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson, alleged the Bush administration had twisted prewar intelligence on Iraq.