WASHINGTON — Defense attorneys are withdrawing, for now, their request to use NBC News reporter Andrea Mitchell's notes during the CIA leak case, heading off a potential fight leading to the trial of former White House aide I. Lewis Libby.

A federal judge said on Jan. 19 that he probably would release Mitchell's notes to attorneys for Libby and scheduled a hearing on the issue today. Within hours, network spokeswoman Barbara Levin said the request for the notes had been withdrawn and the hearing canceled.

Libby is accused of lying to investigators about what he told reporters regarding former CIA operative Valerie Plame, whose husband — former ambassador Joseph Wilson — emerged in 2003 as a vocal critic of the Bush administration's prewar intelligence on Iraq.

Mitchell's notes on her conversation with Libby have been under subpoena for nearly a year, but U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton had ruled that because Mitchell was unlikely to testify at trial, her notes would not be released.

Attorneys for Libby, former chief of staff for Vice President Dick Cheney, said in court on Jan. 19 that they planned to call Mitchell as a defense witness during the perjury and obstruction trial. Opening arguments are scheduled to begin tomorrow.

Walton reversed course and ordered attorneys for NBC to be in court today to discuss the notes. He said: "I don't see how I can deprive the defense of it."

Though the hearing was canceled and the request withdrawn, defense attorney William Jeffress said he might revisit the issue during the trial, which is expected to last at least four weeks.

Libby told authorities that he learned Plame's identity from reporters, but prosecutors say Libby learned it during a series of high-level conversations about how to rebut Wilson's criticisms.

Mitchell's testimony and notes could help Libby's case by describing an atmosphere of tension and finger-pointing within the Bush administration regarding intelligence issues on Iraq. That could bolster Libby's claims about a hectic and tumultuous climate in which he could not accurately remember certain conversations.