Parties in the Ipulasi and Tulifua case jointly file for protective order by Fili Sagapolutele Samoa News Correspondent The parties involved in the federal case against Lt. Gov. Ipulasi A. Sunia and Sen. Tulifua Tini Lam Yuen have filed a joint motion for a protective order to prevent the public release of all documents as they prepare for trial. U.S. prosecutors and defense attorneys in the federal case have filed the joint motion for court "protective order" to allow the release of all documents for only the purpose of preparing for trial. The motion was filed on April 24 with the federal court in Washington D.C. and was made available via the federal electronic court records yesterday. There was no record online indicating that U.S. District Court Judge Reggie B. Walton made a decision on the motion. According to the motion, the government intends to make or has made available to Ipulasi and Tulifua certain hard copy documents and electronic records, a limited subset of which contain confidential, proprietary or personally-identifiable information of the two defendants, their family members, or third parties. The government said it anticipates to disclose to the defendants certain limited information relating to sensitive, ongoing investigation. The motion also noted that there were materials seized in the federal search in 2005 of Ipulasi's office and this includes some materials which may be covered by the attorney-client privilege or work product doctrine, which both sides want protected for use only in trial preparation and not for public release. In addition, Ipulasi and Tulifua may produce additional materials that contain confidential, proprietary or perennially-identifiable information, according to the motion. The two sides asked Walton to set reasonable limitations on the prosecution and defense' use of these materials while providing all parties with an adequate opportunity to review the materials in preparations for trial. According to the motion, both sides want these and other documents and including those from law enforcement to be kept in "confidentiality". The motion was filed jointly by prosecutors Matthew L. Stennes, Daniel A. Schwager and Kate H. Albrecht, Ipulasi's attorneys Lanny A. Breuer and Emily Johnson Henn of the Covington & Burling LLP, and Tulifua's attorneys Michelle Peterson and Lara G. Quint of the federal Office of the Public Defender. The trial of Ipulasi and Tulifua is set for January 2009. Reach the reporter at fili@samoanews.com.  © Osini Faleatasi Inc. dba Samoa News reserves all rights.