WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The judge in the criminal trial of Lewis "Scooter" Libby is making it clear for the historic record that he thought the defendant would take the stand, and that the presumption figured strongly into his decisions about classified material he would have allowed into evidence.

He also suggests the defense could have improved the prospects for acquittal of their client had they called Vice President Dick Cheney to the stand.

The jury is now in its eighth day of deliberations on a five-count indictment against Cheney's former chief of staff, and U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton granted their request for an early release Friday, at 2 p.m.

The trial began Jan. 23. Libby is accused of lying to investigators and a
grand jury about his knowledge of Valerie Plame Wilson, a onetime CIA operative whose husband, a former ambassador, openly questioned part of the Bush basis for invading Iraq.

Neither Libby nor former boss Cheney took the stand as the defense had proposed.

Walton filed a "memorandum opinion" that was released Friday to "memorialize" the basis for some of his decision-making during the trial.

Although somewhat unusual, the written record elaborating on bench discussions may help an appeals court explore his decisions should any jury verdict be challenged.

In a negotiating process that took months leading up to the trial, the defense sought and obtained limited access to highly classified White House briefing papers during Libby's time as both chief of staff and national security advisor to Cheney.

The documents were to help establish that Libby may have been distracted by urgent national security matters highlighted in those briefings around the time he was questioned about the Wilson matter.

But Walton said that without the defendant on the stand, his memory defense would be more difficult to establish. "Mr. Libby is not testifying to tell us that once he received those briefings, that he then did focus on those matters and that consumed his time and attention."

Walton's written follow-up is stronger than his courtroom reaction was, as he defends his bench decision not to allow the negotiated classified material as evidence. "Without a showing through his own testimony," Walton wrote, "the matters described had no relevance to this case, and thus were inadmissible."