Acquittal denied in trial of former FBI officials

A federal judge, rejecting defense arguments that prosecutors had failed to prove their case, refused to order the acquittal of two former FBI officials charged with approvig illegal breakins. In arguing for acquittal, lawyers for W. Mark Felt, a former FBI No. 2 man, and Edward S. Miller, a retired bureau intelligence chief, contended that the break-ins were part of a legitimate national-security investigation -- a hunt for fugitive radicals. But the prosecutor said the searchers at the homes of acquaintances and relatives of fugitive leaders of the Weather Underground organization violated "the very core of the Fourth Amendment."