WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Lawyers for former vice presidential aide Lewis "Scooter' Libby are seeking records from reporters at several news organizations that might help in his perjury defense, the media outlets said on Thursday.

The New York Times, NBC News and a lawyer for a Time magazine reporter said they received subpoenas from the defense team for Libby, once chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney. The Washington Post said it expected to receive a subpoena as well.

The subpoenas again thrust the news media into the thick of the investigation into who in the Bush administration revealed the identity of a CIA official after her husband criticized the administration's Iraq policy.

Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald relied on reporters' testimony to bring perjury charges against Libby last fall after an appeals court ordered them to cooperate. Reporter Judith Miller, then of The New York Times, spent 85 days in jail before agreeing to testify.

The subpoenas issued this week indicate Libby's legal team hopes to enlist reporters for his defense as well.

Libby's lawyers hope to prove he did not intentionally lie to the FBI and a federal grand jury but was simply too distracted with national security matters to accurately remember his conversations with Miller and other reporters about the CIA official, Valerie Plame.

One of Libby's attorneys, William Jeffress, declined to say which news organizations he had subpoenaed.

A subpoena delivered to The New York Times on Wednesday asked the newspaper to hand over notes, e-mail messages, draft news articles and all other documents that refer to Plame before July 14, 2003, when her identity was made public.

Times spokeswoman Catherine Mathis said the newspaper had not yet decided whether to comply with the subpoena. News organizations have until April 7 to challenge the request.

Mathis said Miller, who has since left the Times, received a separate subpoena. A lawyer for Miller did not return a call seeking comment.

NBC News Washington Bureau Chief Tim Russert and Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper also received subpoenas, said representatives, who declined further comment.

Washington Post spokesman Eric Grant said, "The Post has not yet received a subpoena, but we anticipate receiving one."

A subpoena to the Post could force star reporter Bob Woodward to reveal who in the government told him Plame's identity more than a month before it was made public. It is against the law for a government official to knowingly expose a CIA agent.

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