SACRAMENTO, Oct. 20 – Lynette Fromme will seek to subpoena President Ford as a witness in her federal court trial on a charge she attempted to murder Ford when he visited Sacramento Sept. 5.

Miss Fromme’s motion to subpoena the President is one of several scheduled for hearing tomorrow before U.S. District Court Judge Thomas J. MacBride.

The unusual request has sent prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s office thumbing through law books to determine whether the President is subject to subpoena by the court.

“That’s an interesting question,” said Donald Heller, assistant to U.S. Attorney Dwyne Keyes, prosecutor in the Fromme case. “We expect to have an answer before tomorrow.”

However, Heller said, he suspects the request may be turned down for other reasons.

Because her trial costs as an indigent defendant are being paid by the government, Judge MacBride has told Miss Fromme she must “make a satisfactory showing” that expenses for witnesses and pretrial investigation are necessary.

MacBride also will hear motions to supress evidence and a motion that Miss Fromme he allowed to undertake individual questioning of each prospective juror in her trial.

Unlike the state courts, where attorneys are allowed to question jurors about their qualifications and prejudices which might effect their decisions, lawyers in the federal courts ordinarily do not examine jurors. This task is undertaken solely by the judge.

Miss Fromme is acting as her own attorney with assistance from lawyer John Virga, her court-appointed co-counsel.

In her motion to suppress evidence, Miss Fromme attacks the validity of three search warrants obtained by FBI agents and asked for the return of certain items seized by the agents from her 1725 P St. apartment, from the basement of the apartment house and from her car.

The wispy 26-year-old defendant contends U.S. Magistrate Esther Mix did not have “probable cause” to issue search warrants.

U.S. Attorney Dwayne Keyes contends in response that FBI agents had sufficient reason to believe that Miss Fromme’s apartment contained “maps, bullets, weapons, plans and other instrumentalities of crime.”

Keyes says the prosecution intends to attempt to introduce a box of .45 caliber bullets and a book on hand guns seized from Miss Fromme’s apartment as evidence.

An inventory of items taken from the Fromme apartment lists at least two large hunting knives, two pistol holsters and such other things as prayer beads, a number of letters to convicted mass slayer Charles Manson and a videotape of a 1970 interview with Manson.

Miss Fromme has said the latter items are of no use to the prosecution and she wants them returned “before they disappear or wind up in a museum.”

Miss Fromme, described as a member of Manson’s cult, also is expected to ask for a continuance of her trial, which is now set to begin Nov. 4.

Charged with pointing a loaded .45 caliber pistol at President Ford as he walked through Capitol Park, Miss Fromme is now being held in county jail under $350,000 bail.