Court OK's Look at Times' Phone Records

"Federal prosecutors investigating a leak about a terrorism funding probe can see the phone records of two New York Times reporters, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.

A panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned on a 2-1 vote a lower court's ruling that the records were off limits unless prosecutors could show they had exhausted all other means of finding out who spoke to the newspaper.

The judges said a grand jury investigation of the disclosures wasn't likely to go anywhere without help from the reporters or access to their records.

'There is simply no substitute for the evidence they have,' Judge Ralph K. Winter wrote." Read on.