Hardened criminal Judith Miller finally put in jail
Posted: Thu Jul 07, 2005 10:41 am
Judge jails N.Y. Times writer for refusing to name source
- Richard B. Schmitt, Los Angeles Times
Thursday, July 7, 2005
Washington -- A New York Times reporter was jailed Wednesday for refusing to submit to questioning by a special prosecutor investigating possible wrongdoing by the Bush administration, but a Time magazine reporter avoided jail at the last minute by agreeing to cooperate with the government.
U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan ordered Judith Miller, 57, imprisoned until she agrees to testify in an investigation into the illegal revealing of a CIA operative. The judge declared that the rights of journalists to gather news and protect confidential sources must occasionally yield to the power of prosecutors to demand testimony and investigate suspected crimes.
In the closely watched test of press freedoms, Miller's attorneys had contended that the reporter, who once shared a Pulitzer Prize, should not be sent to jail, because she was exercising her rights under the First Amendment. Hogan, however, said journalists have no greater rights than other citizens when called upon to testify in federal proceedings.
Hogan's order was the culmination of an emotional court hearing in which the fates of the two journalists took dramatically different turns. While Miller braced for jail, Time reporter Matthew Cooper surprised the court by announcing that he would agree to testify.
Both had been held in civil contempt of court by Hogan for their refusal to identify sources in their reporting on the possibly illegal disclosure of the identity of a CIA agent by a Bush administration official.
Cooper said a source in the CIA leak investigation had phoned him Wednesday morning to release him from his pledge of confidentiality and had encouraged him to testify. That source has not been identified.
An attorney for White House political strategist Karl Rove has acknowledged that Rove spoke with Cooper but has denied that Rove unmasked the CIA agent's identity.
"I have a person in front of me who is defying the law and may be obstructing justice," Hogan said in pronouncing judgment on Miller. "The court has to take action."
The judge said he feared that letting Miller avoid testifying would put the judicial system "on a slippery slope to anarchy."
Miller was escorted from the Washington courtroom by U.S. marshals. She reportedly was seen entering a detention center in Alexandria, Va.
Unless she agrees to talk, Miller will be imprisoned for the duration of the federal grand jury's investigation of the leak case, or about four months. Hogan raised the possibility that she might be held in criminal contempt if she continues to defy the order to testify, which theoretically could add months to her sentence.
The jailing drew widespread criticism from media groups, which said it will make it harder for journalists to do their jobs and to cultivate confidential sources willing to share secrets about government misconduct. They said it also will embolden other prosecutors to use the power of the courts to coerce journalists into sharing their reporting with investigators to help them do their jobs.
Outside court, Cooper declared it was "a sad day not only for journalists, but for our country."
He said he would have continued to defy the court if he had not received the last-minute reprieve from his source.
"I gave my word to a source, and I kept it for two years," he said. "This morning, in what can only be described as a stunning set of developments, that person agreed to give me a personal, unambiguous, uncoerced waiver that I could speak to the grand jury."
The move followed a decision last week by Cooper's employer, Time Inc., which separately had been held in contempt in the case, to turn over notes and e-mails that effectively revealed the source Cooper was using. Hogan said Wednesday that because of Time's action, the court would vacate the contempt order, which had exposed the publishing company to potentially massive fines.
Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has been investigating the circumstances surrounding a July 14, 2003, column by Robert Novak that identified Valerie Plame as a CIA agent. Plame is the wife of Joseph Wilson, a former diplomat who had written a column eight days before accusing the Bush administration of using faulty intelligence in deciding to wage war in Iraq.
Fitzgerald is investigating whether administration figures leaked Plame's identity to Novak and other journalists as retaliation for the column her husband wrote. Intentionally revealing the identity of a CIA operative is, in some cases, against federal law.
Miller -- who never wrote about the case -- was subpoenaed by Fitzgerald to testify about conversations she had with "a government official" about Wilson and Plame between the time of the Wilson and Novak columns. Fitzgerald has asserted that the unnamed official has given a general waiver permitting Miller to testify; Miller has said she does not consider the waiver to be voluntary.
Cooper has been of interest to Fitzgerald because of two articles he wrote after Novak's column, including a July 17, 2003, piece on Time's Web site in which he asserted that the administration had declared war on Wilson and that "some government officials have noted to Time in interviews" that Plame was a CIA official.
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What a Kafka-esque farce. Miller has never published a single word about the Plame affair, and the extent of Cooper’s writing about it has been to chide Novak for letting himself be used as a club by the administration in outing Plame.
According to everyone involved, the same source named Plame to all three journalists. Wonder who that could be? I'm sure the fact that Karl Rove was fired from G.H.W. Bush's staff for leaking inside info to Novak is just a coincidence.
The funny part is, Miller isn’t exactly an enemy of the state. In the run-up to the war in Iraq, she wrote extensively about the WMDs that were subsequently never found. Cooper is a well-liked member of the White House press corps. Novak stands out only by being a long-time shill for White House policies.
And yet, Miller’s going to jail, and Cooper’s publisher had to cut a weak-kneed last-minute deal to keep him out of jail. Meanwhile, Novak, who flirted with treason by publicly identifying an American secret agent, skates away scot-free. What a country.
- Richard B. Schmitt, Los Angeles Times
Thursday, July 7, 2005
Washington -- A New York Times reporter was jailed Wednesday for refusing to submit to questioning by a special prosecutor investigating possible wrongdoing by the Bush administration, but a Time magazine reporter avoided jail at the last minute by agreeing to cooperate with the government.
U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan ordered Judith Miller, 57, imprisoned until she agrees to testify in an investigation into the illegal revealing of a CIA operative. The judge declared that the rights of journalists to gather news and protect confidential sources must occasionally yield to the power of prosecutors to demand testimony and investigate suspected crimes.
In the closely watched test of press freedoms, Miller's attorneys had contended that the reporter, who once shared a Pulitzer Prize, should not be sent to jail, because she was exercising her rights under the First Amendment. Hogan, however, said journalists have no greater rights than other citizens when called upon to testify in federal proceedings.
Hogan's order was the culmination of an emotional court hearing in which the fates of the two journalists took dramatically different turns. While Miller braced for jail, Time reporter Matthew Cooper surprised the court by announcing that he would agree to testify.
Both had been held in civil contempt of court by Hogan for their refusal to identify sources in their reporting on the possibly illegal disclosure of the identity of a CIA agent by a Bush administration official.
Cooper said a source in the CIA leak investigation had phoned him Wednesday morning to release him from his pledge of confidentiality and had encouraged him to testify. That source has not been identified.
An attorney for White House political strategist Karl Rove has acknowledged that Rove spoke with Cooper but has denied that Rove unmasked the CIA agent's identity.
"I have a person in front of me who is defying the law and may be obstructing justice," Hogan said in pronouncing judgment on Miller. "The court has to take action."
The judge said he feared that letting Miller avoid testifying would put the judicial system "on a slippery slope to anarchy."
Miller was escorted from the Washington courtroom by U.S. marshals. She reportedly was seen entering a detention center in Alexandria, Va.
Unless she agrees to talk, Miller will be imprisoned for the duration of the federal grand jury's investigation of the leak case, or about four months. Hogan raised the possibility that she might be held in criminal contempt if she continues to defy the order to testify, which theoretically could add months to her sentence.
The jailing drew widespread criticism from media groups, which said it will make it harder for journalists to do their jobs and to cultivate confidential sources willing to share secrets about government misconduct. They said it also will embolden other prosecutors to use the power of the courts to coerce journalists into sharing their reporting with investigators to help them do their jobs.
Outside court, Cooper declared it was "a sad day not only for journalists, but for our country."
He said he would have continued to defy the court if he had not received the last-minute reprieve from his source.
"I gave my word to a source, and I kept it for two years," he said. "This morning, in what can only be described as a stunning set of developments, that person agreed to give me a personal, unambiguous, uncoerced waiver that I could speak to the grand jury."
The move followed a decision last week by Cooper's employer, Time Inc., which separately had been held in contempt in the case, to turn over notes and e-mails that effectively revealed the source Cooper was using. Hogan said Wednesday that because of Time's action, the court would vacate the contempt order, which had exposed the publishing company to potentially massive fines.
Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has been investigating the circumstances surrounding a July 14, 2003, column by Robert Novak that identified Valerie Plame as a CIA agent. Plame is the wife of Joseph Wilson, a former diplomat who had written a column eight days before accusing the Bush administration of using faulty intelligence in deciding to wage war in Iraq.
Fitzgerald is investigating whether administration figures leaked Plame's identity to Novak and other journalists as retaliation for the column her husband wrote. Intentionally revealing the identity of a CIA operative is, in some cases, against federal law.
Miller -- who never wrote about the case -- was subpoenaed by Fitzgerald to testify about conversations she had with "a government official" about Wilson and Plame between the time of the Wilson and Novak columns. Fitzgerald has asserted that the unnamed official has given a general waiver permitting Miller to testify; Miller has said she does not consider the waiver to be voluntary.
Cooper has been of interest to Fitzgerald because of two articles he wrote after Novak's column, including a July 17, 2003, piece on Time's Web site in which he asserted that the administration had declared war on Wilson and that "some government officials have noted to Time in interviews" that Plame was a CIA official.
======================
What a Kafka-esque farce. Miller has never published a single word about the Plame affair, and the extent of Cooper’s writing about it has been to chide Novak for letting himself be used as a club by the administration in outing Plame.
According to everyone involved, the same source named Plame to all three journalists. Wonder who that could be? I'm sure the fact that Karl Rove was fired from G.H.W. Bush's staff for leaking inside info to Novak is just a coincidence.
The funny part is, Miller isn’t exactly an enemy of the state. In the run-up to the war in Iraq, she wrote extensively about the WMDs that were subsequently never found. Cooper is a well-liked member of the White House press corps. Novak stands out only by being a long-time shill for White House policies.
And yet, Miller’s going to jail, and Cooper’s publisher had to cut a weak-kneed last-minute deal to keep him out of jail. Meanwhile, Novak, who flirted with treason by publicly identifying an American secret agent, skates away scot-free. What a country.