Reporter breaks silence in CIA leak case - Yahoo! News

By Adam Entous


Ending her standoff with federal prosecutors after nearly three months in jail, New York Times reporter Judith Miller appeared before a federal grand jury on Friday investigating who in the Bush administration leaked a covert CIA operative's identity.

Miller agreed to break her silence and testify after receiving what she described as a voluntary and personal waiver of confidentiality from her source, identified as Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis Libby.

Lawyers close to the case said Miller's testimony appeared to clear the way for prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald to wrap up his 2-year-old inquiry into who leaked CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity and whether any laws were violated.

Plame's diplomat husband, Joseph Wilson, said the administration had leaked her name, damaging her ability to work undercover, to get back at him for criticizing President George W. Bush's Iraq policy.

With Miller's testimony, lawyers said, Fitzgerald could move quickly to bring indictments in the case. Or he may conclude that no crime was committed and end his investigation and possibly issue a report on his findings.

The outcome could shake up the Bush White House, already reeling from criticism over its response to Hurricane Katrina and Wednesday's indictment of House Republican leader Tom DeLay.

The leak investigation has ensnarled Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove, as well as Libby. The White House had long maintained that they had nothing to do with the leak.

Asked if he felt burned by Rove and Libby when he earlier told the press corps they were not involved, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said: "It is an ongoing investigation and, as such, our policy has been and continues to be not to comment."

He said Bush "wants to get to the bottom of it."

Miller, who was sent to jail on July 6 although she never wrote an article about the Plame matter, had no comment before entering the federal court house to begin her testimony.

Viewed by some as a martyr for press freedom, Miller has faced criticism in the past for some of her pre-war news reports on Iraq's alleged weapons programs. Critics say those reports helped boost the administration's case that Iraq posed a threat. No weapons of mass destruction were found.

RELEASE

Miller was released on Thursday from the Alexandria Detention Center outside Washington after she and her lawyers reached agreement with Fitzgerald about the scope of her testimony.

Cheney spokeswoman Lea Anne McBride said on behalf of Libby: "It's an ongoing investigation and one in which we are fully cooperating."

Rove's attorney, Robert Luskin, said: "This doesn't involve Karl and he has not been contacted" by Fitzgerald.

Legal sources close to the case said Miller was under growing pressure to testify because Fitzgerald could have sought to impose a stiffer criminal sentence against her.

A spokesman for Fitzgerald declined to comment. Fitzgerald had indicated earlier this year that he could wrap up his investigation once he obtained the testimony of Miller, lawyers involved in the case said.

Fitzgerald had already secured the cooperation of Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper, who agreed to testify after saying he received the "express personal consent" of his source to reveal his identity.

Cooper told the grand jury that Rove was the first person to tell him about Plame, although Cooper said Rove did not disclose her name. Cooper said he also discussed her and her husband with Libby.

Syndicated newspaper columnist Robert Novak first revealed Plame's identity in a column on July 14, 2003, citing two administration officials, shortly after Wilson, on July 14, published an opinion piece in The New York Times that accused the administration of twisting intelligence on Iraq.

According to The Times, Miller met with Libby on July 8, 2003, and talked with him by telephone later that week.

Plame's husband has long asserted the leak was meant in retaliation for his criticism of Bush's Iraq policy in 2003 related to a CIA-funded trip to investigate whether Niger helped supply nuclear materials to Baghdad.

Wilson said his report that he found no evidence of Iraq trying to get nuclear materials from Niger was ignored by Bush, who used such a charge as part of his justification for invading Iraq.

After initially promising to fire anyone found to have leaked information in the case, Bush in July offered a more qualified pledge: "If someone committed a crime they will no longer work in my administration."

Prominent Democrats have called on Bush to fire Rove, the architect of his two presidential election victories and now his deputy chief of staff, or block his access to classified information.

Rove's attorneys said Rove did nothing wrong.

Miller Arrives to Testify in Leak Probe - Yahoo! News

By JOHN SOLOMON, Associated Press Writer


New York Times reporter Judith Miller appeared for testimony before a federal grand jury Friday, throwing a spotlight once again on the White House role in the leak of a covert CIA officer's identity.

Freed after 85 days in a federal detention center, Miller arrived at about 8:30 a.m. at the federal courthouse to testify for Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation about her conversations in July 2003 with Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.

Miller said in a statement that her source — identified by the Times as Libby — had released her from her promise of confidentially.

She went to the grand jury area accompanied by her attorney Robert Bennett and others, including colleagues from the Times.

Until a few months ago, the White House maintained for nearly two years that Libby and presidential aide Karl Rove were not involved in leaking the identity of Valerie Plame, whose husband had publicly suggested that the Bush administration twisted intelligence in the runup to the war in Iraq.

The timing of the criticism by former Ambassador Joseph Wilson was devastating for the White House, which was already on the defensive because no weapons of mass destruction had been found in Iraq. The president's claims of such weapons were the main justification for going to war.

Libby met with Miller just two days after Wilson blasted the Bush administration in a Times op-ed piece.

Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper has testified recently that Rove and Libby had spoken to him about Wilson's wife that same week in July 2003 when Miller spoke to Libby.

In October 2003, with the criminal investigation gaining speed, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said of Rove and Libby: "Those individuals assured me they were not involved in this" leaking of Plame's identity.

Miller has been in custody in Alexandria, Va., since July 6. A federal judge ordered her jailed for civil contempt of court when she refused to testify.

The disclosure of Plame's identity by syndicated columnist Robert Novak on July 14, 2003, triggered a criminal investigation that could still result in criminal charges against government officials.

"My source has now voluntarily and personally released me from my promise of confidentiality regarding our conversations relating to the Wilson-Plame matter," Miller said in a statement Thursday. Her newspaper identified Libby as the source, saying that Miller and Libby spoke in person on July 8, 2003, then talked by phone later that week.

Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. said that "as we have throughout this ordeal, we continue to support Judy Miller in the decision she has made. We are very pleased that she has finally received a direct and uncoerced waiver, both by phone and in writing, releasing her from any claim of confidentiality and enabling her to testify."

White House aides signed waivers earlier in the probe, but Miller wanted and received personal assurances that her source's waiver was voluntary. Libby's lawyer, Joseph Tate, did not return a phone call seeking comment.

Fitzgerald spokesman Randall Samborn declined to comment.

President Bush has given varying accounts of the circumstances under which he would fire leakers in the Plame probe.

In September 2003, Bush said "we'll take the appropriate action" and his spokesman said "they would no longer be in this administration." In June 2004, Bush reiterated the pledge, answering "yes" when asked if he would fire anyone in his administration who leaked Plame's name. In July, amid revelations that Rove and Libby had been involved in the leaks, Bush said that "if someone committed a crime" he would be fired.

The federal grand jury delving into the matter expires Oct. 28. Miller would have been freed at that time, but prosecutors could have pursued a criminal contempt of court charge against the reporter if she continued to defy Fitzgerald.

Of the reporters swept up in Fitzgerald's investigation, Miller is the only one to go to jail.

Novak apparently has cooperated with prosecutors, though neither he nor his lawyer has said so.

Novak's column in July 2003 said two senior administration officials told him Plame had suggested sending her husband to the African nation of Niger on behalf of the CIA to look into possible Iraqi purchases of uranium yellowcake.

Wilson's article in the Times, titled "What I Didn't Find In Africa," had stated it was highly doubtful that any such transaction had ever taken place.

Miller is a veteran national security reporter. In the 1980s, she became the first woman to be named chief of the Times' Cairo bureau in Egypt. For her work on Osama bin Laden in 2001, she won a Pulitzer Prize for explanatory journalism as part of a small team of Times reporters.

Starting in 2002, her stories about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq helped bolster the Bush administration's case for toppling Saddam Hussein. The failure to find the weapons prompted heavy criticism of Miller and the Times as well as of the Bush administration.

NY Times reporter freed from jail in CIA probe case - Yahoo! News

By Adam Entous

After being locked up in jail for nearly three months, New York Times reporter Judith Miller was released on Thursday after agreeing to testify before a grand jury investigating who in the Bush administration leaked a covert CIA operative's name.

Miller said in a statement issued by the newspaper she was freed after her source -- identified by the Times as Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis Libby -- "voluntarily and personally released me from my promise of confidentiality regarding our conversations."

Miller agreed to appear on Friday before the grand jury, which has been investigating who leaked CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity and whether any laws were violated.

Miller met with Libby on July 8, 2003, the newspaper said, and talked with him by telephone later that week.

She was released from the Alexandria Detention Center just outside Washington after she and her lawyers met at the jail with Patrick Fitzgerald, the prosecutor in the case, to discuss her testimony.

Legal sources said Miller's testimony appeared to clear the way for Fitzgerald to wrap up his case, which could shake up an administration already reeling from criticism over its response to Hurricane Katrina and Wednesday's indictment of House Republican leader Tom DeLay.

The leak investigation has ensnarled President George W. Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove, as well as Libby.

Miller, who was sent to jail on July 6 although she never wrote an article about the Plame matter, said her attorneys had reached agreement with Fitzgerald "regarding the nature and scope of my testimony, which satisfies my obligation as a reporter to keep faith with my sources."

Cheney spokeswoman Lea Anne McBride declined to comment on Libby's role, except to say, "It's an ongoing investigation and one in which we are fully cooperating."

Rove's attorney, Robert Luskin, said, "This doesn't involve Karl and he has not been contacted" by Fitzgerald.

When Miller was jailed, chief U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan said she must stay there until she agreed to testify or for the rest of the grand jury's term, which lasts through October. Legal sources close to the case said Fitzgerald could have sought to impose a stiffer criminal sentence against Miller had she refused to cooperate.

A spokesman for Fitzgerald declined to comment. Fitzgerald indicated earlier this year he could wrap up his investigation once he obtained the testimony of Miller and Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper.

Cooper agreed to testify after saying he received the "express personal consent" of his source to reveal his identity. Cooper told the grand jury that Rove was the first person to tell him about Plame, although Cooper said Rove did not disclose her name. Cooper said he also discussed her and her husband, former diplomat Joseph Wilson, with Libby.

Columnist Robert Novak first revealed Plame's identity in July 2003, citing two administration officials, shortly after Wilson published an opinion piece in The New York Times that accused the administration of twisting intelligence on Iraq.

New York Times Publisher Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr. said the newspaper supported Miller's decision to testify, just as it backed her earlier refusal to cooperate. "We are very pleased that she has finally received a direct and uncoerced waiver, both by phone and in writing, releasing her from any claim of confidentiality and enabling her to testify," he said.

PAYBACK?

Plame's husband has long asserted the leak was meant to discredit him for criticizing Bush's Iraq policy in 2003 after a CIA-funded trip to investigate whether Niger helped supply nuclear materials to Baghdad.

After initially promising to fire anyone found to have leaked information in the case, Bush in July offered a more qualified pledge: "If someone committed a crime they will no longer work in my administration."

Prominent Democrats have called on Bush to fire Rove, the architect of his two presidential election victories and now his deputy chief of staff, or block his access to classified information.

Rove's attorneys said Rove did nothing wrong and had been repeatedly assured he was not a target of Fitzgerald's investigation.

According to her attorneys, Miller, an investigative reporter who covers national security and foreign policy issues, has been in a U.S. jail longer than any other newspaper journalist to protect a source.

The Alexandria facility in Virginia where Miller was held has housed some of the nation's most notorious spies and terror suspects. One floor above Miller's cell was Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person convicted in connection with the September 11, 2001, attacks.

"It's good to be free," Miller said.