[LEAKGATE] Judith Miller Out of Jail, Will Testify Friday

Editor & Publisher Staff

[LEAKGATE] Judith Miller Out of Jail, Will Testify Friday

Thu Sep 29, 2005 23:50

64.140.158.58

Judith Miller Out of Jail, Will Testify Friday
September 29, 2005
By Editor & Publisher Staff
http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001219300

Judith Miller, The New York Times reporter who has been jailed since July 6 for refusing to identify a source, has been released, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported on its Web site Thursday night, confirmed by The New York Times shortly after 8 p.m.

Miller said in a statement that she expected to appear before the grand jury on Friday.

According to the Times, she and her lawyers reached an agreement with a federal prosecutor to testify before a grand jury investigating the matter.

The Inquirer had reported that an unnamed jail official had revealed that Miller left an Alexandria, Va. jail late this afternoon, at 3:55 pm., adding, "She was released after she had a telephone conversation with the Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby, sources said.

According to the Times, Libby "had made clear that he genuinely wanted her to testify."

But the Times account, published tonight, revealed that Libby and his lawyers asserted that they had given his waiver a year ago--and then again two weeks ago--but Miller did not accept it.

Miller met with Libby on July 8, 2003, and talked with him by telephone later that week, according to the Times. Discussions between government officials and journalists that week have been a central focus of the investigation in the Valerie Plame case.

She was released after she and her lawyers met at the jail with Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the prosecutor in the case, to discuss her testimony, the Times revealed.

The Times' publisher, Arthur M. Sulzberger Jr., said in a statement that the newspaper supported Ms. Miller's decision to testify. "Judy has been unwavering in her commitment to protect the confidentiality of her source," Sulzberger said. "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."

The agreement that led to Miller's release, the Times said, followed "intense negotiations between Ms. Miller; her lawyer, Robert Bennett; Mr. Libby's lawyer, Joseph Tate; and Mr. Fitzgerald. The talks began with a telephone call from Mr. Bennett to Mr. Tate in late August. Ms. Miller spoke with Mr. Libby by telephone earlier this month as their lawyers listened, according to people briefed on the matter. It was then that Mr. Libby told Ms. Miller that she had his personal and voluntary waiver.

"But the discussions were at times strained, with Mr. Libby and Mr. Tate asserting that they communicated their voluntary waiver to Ms. Miller's lawyers more than year ago, according to those briefed on the case. Mr. Libby wrote to Ms. Miller in mid-September, saying that he believed her lawyers understood that his waiver was voluntary.

"Others involved in the case have said that Ms. Miller did not understand that the waiver had been freely given and did not accept it until she had heard from him directly."

In a written statement today, Bill Keller, the executive editor of The Times, said that Fitzgerald had assured Miller's lawyer that "he intended to limit his grand jury interrogation so that it would not implicate other sources of hers." He said that Fitzgerald had cleared the way to an agreement by assuring Miller and her source that he would not regard a conversation between the two about a possible waiver as an obstruction of justice.

Miller said she believed the agreement between her lawyers and Fitzgerald "satisfies my obligation as a reporter to keep faith with my sources." She added: "I went to jail to preserve the time-honored principle that a journalist must respect a promise not to reveal the identity of a confidential source. I chose to take the consequences - 85 days in prison - rather than violate that promise. The principle was more important to uphold than my personal freedom. "

According to the Times story, Miller said she was grateful for the "unwavering support" shown by her husband, family and friends and by her paper. Fitzgerald declined to comment on the matter.

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GOOGLE: Results 1 - 10 of about 623 for Judith Miller

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Find Out What Could Be Worst Than WATERGATE "LEAKGATE"!!!

Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982 (50 U.S.C. 421 et seq.)
(governing disclosures that could expose confidential Government agents)

http://foi.missouri.edu/bushinfopolicies/protection.html

IMPEACHMENT TIME: "FACTS WERE FIXED."
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/leakgate_impeachment.htm

THE WAR OVER THE LEAK....
http://www.apfn.net/messageboard/05-23-05/discussion.cgi.1.html

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"Rosebud" DID IT! Vice President Cheney's code
Sun Jul 24, 2005 00:29
64.140.158.104

Last update: July 23, 2005 at 7:25 PM
Garrison Keillor:
This plot calls for big-name cast of characters
July 24, 2005
SOURCE:

I feel it's time for me to step forward and tell what I know about Karl Rove's conversation with columnist Robert Novak in which Mr. Novak reportedly told Mr. Rove that CIA operative Valerie Plame had been responsible for her husband Joseph Wilson going to Niger to debunk the White House's claim that Saddam Hussein was shopping for uranium in Africa to make nuclear weapons and that's why we invaded Iraq, and Mr. Rove said, "Yes, I've heard that, too." Mr. Rove has been accused of revealing the identity of a covert intelligence officer. This simply isn't true.

I happened to be in Mr. Rove's office when the phone rang. I was there on behalf of my publisher, to see if Mr. Rove knows enough to make him worth a $6 million advance on his memoirs. (Answer: Not really.) He picked up the phone and the voice at the other end sounded like a rat trapped in a coffee can. "Novak," whispered Mr. Rove and he pretended to stick a finger down his throat. He listened for several minutes. "Yes, I've heard that, too," he said.

As he spoke to Novak, Mr. Rove wrote on a notepad, "Rosebud knows" -- "Rosebud" being Vice President Cheney's code name -- and winked at me.
CLICK FULL REPORT:
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/leakgate.htm

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CIA LEAK: Suspicion centers on Lewis Libby —Kathryn Cramer, Fri Sep 30 00:17

How did Miller learn about Plame's CIA identity —NewsFollowUp.com, Fri Sep 30 00:33

Robert Novak walks off the set of CNN 8/4/05 —Garrison Keillor:, Fri Sep 30 02:33