Two former pro-Israel lobbyists facing felony charges for conspiring to distribute classified information are planning to call an array of high-ranking Bush administration officials as defense witnesses, including Secretary of State Rice and President Bush’s national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, according to court records.

The pair of former staffers for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman, are scheduled to go on trial in federal court in Alexandria, Va. beginning on April 25.

Attorneys for the two men notified prosecutors last week of plans to subpoena Ms. Rice and Mr. Hadley, as well as other prominent figures, such as a former deputy secretary of state, Richard Armitage; the American ambassador to Russia, William Burns; the former head of the U.S. Central Command, Anthony Zinni, and a deputy national security adviser, Elliott Abrams.

The defense attorneys also signaled that they plan to call a former State Department administrator who serves as the deputy chief of mission at the American Embassy in Baghdad, David Satterfield, and a national security council staffer under President Clinton, Kenneth Pollack.

An attorney for Mr. Rosen, Abbe Lowell, declined to comment on the subpoenas.

Prosecutors assert that Messrs. Rosen and Weissman worked to obtain classified information from government officials and passed it on to others, including reporters and Israeli diplomats. The defense has argued that such exchanges of information are commonplace in Washington and should not be the basis for criminal charges.

The subpoenas to the high-level officials may be aimed at demonstrating that classified information routinely circulates in foreign policy circles.

In January, a former Pentagon analyst charged in the case, Lawrence Franklin, pleaded guilty to three felony counts and was sentenced to 12 1/2 years in prison.

The names of at least some of those subpoenaed as witnesses were recorded on the court’s public docket last week, but the document was subsequently sanitized. As of yesterday, the docket showed notices of ten subpoenas, but did not identify those who received them. The grounds for sanitizing the names are unclear, but nearly all pleadings filed in the case go to a classified information specialist who determines which portions are made public.

The New York Sun obtained the names of three witnesses from the docket and the identities of the other witnesses from a source who saw the names before they were erased.

Under court rules, the defense must seek the permission of Judge Thomas Ellis III before subpoenaing cabinet officials or ambassadors, such as Ms. Rice and Mr. Burns. Public court records do not indicate whether the judge has given such approval.

A state department spokesman said he was unaware of the legal developments and had no comment.