Posted on 08/13/2004 9:14:15 AM PDT by Grampa Dave
August 13, 2004 Times Reporter Is Subpoenaed in Leak Case By ADAM LIPTAK
Reporter for The New York Times, Judith Miller, was subpoenaed yesterday by a Washington grand jury investigating the disclosure of the identity of a C.I.A. undercover officer to the syndicated columnist Robert Novak and other journalists.
The subpoena to Ms. Miller was only the most recent of a series issued to journalists in a politically sensitive inquiry that has on several occasions led investigators to question White House officials.
Arthur Sulzberger Jr., the publisher of The Times, said the paper would move to quash the subpoena to Ms. Miller, issued at the behest of Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the special prosecutor heading the investigation.
"We regret that the special prosecutor has chosen to issue a subpoena that seeks to compel Judy Miller to reveal her confidential sources," Mr. Sulzberger said. "Journalists should not have to face the prospect of imprisonment for doing nothing more than aggressively seeking to report on the government's actions. Such subpoenas make it less likely that sources will be willing to talk candidly with reporters and ultimately it is the public that suffers.''
Lawyers for The Times said the paper expected that it would be served a separate subpoena for its records. They said the paper would fight that subpoena, too.
On Monday, a federal district judge in Washington held Time magazine and one of its reporters in contempt for refusing to identify their sources in the same case. The judge, Thomas F. Hogan, ordered the magazine to pay $1,000 a day and its reporter, Matthew Cooper, jailed until the sources were named. He suspended the sanctions pending the outcome of an appeal.
Judge Hogan will also hear The Times's motion to quash.
Mr. Novak was the first journalist to identify Valerie Plame as an undercover C.I.A. officer, in a column on July 14, 2003. Ms. Plame's husband, Joseph C. Wilson IV, a former diplomat, has asserted that the disclosure of her identity was retribution for his contention eight days earlier, in an Op-Ed article in The Times, that President Bush relied on discredited intelligence on Iraq in his 2003 State of the Union address.
The Times has not published any articles saying it received information about Ms. Plame's identity.
Thanks!
Thanks, now I understand what you were saying.
Have you ever thought that the super elite fascist liberal mediots control the liberal politicians? Think about it every once in awhile.
Have a good weekend and thanks again for your response.
Back when columnist Robert Novak looked to be the main target of special federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, our professional press ethicists were tut-tutting about how they'd never "hide" behind journalistic privilege to abet a "crime." But now that a federal judge has held Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper in contempt for refusing to tell a grand jury the sources for his own Valerie Plame story, suddenly the eyebrows furrow and talk turns to the threat to the First Amendment...The media powers now wringing their collective hands at this prospect have no one to blame but themselves. As these columns pointed out from the start, in their enthusiasm for a criminal investigation that liberals saw as a twofer--discrediting a conservative columnist as well as the Bush Administration--they were really painting bull's-eyes on other reporters. We await comment from Geneva Overholser, Orville Schell and all the other journalistic sages who were so quick to find Mr. Novak unworthy of the usual press protections....
In recent decades we in the news business have depended less on legal privilege in protecting ourselves from being compelled to give up our sources than on a healthy recognition by most prosecutors that jailing reporters for standing on principle is not wise. What has been unleashed by the federal investigation into the Novak leak now threatens to alter that balance decisively. And those who only now decry the implications for First Amendment freedoms are coming very late to the game.
Great!
Thanks for posting this WSJ editorial.
To all the lunatic libs in charge of the media, and the mediots who work for them: "Be careful of what you wish for! Your wishes may come true and be an incredible nightmare the rest of your miserable lives"
>>More good news for our side this week.
Not sure why it's good news.
The end game is a Bush Admin person who leaked this (unless Wilson/Plame leaked it?)
PS - Is the special procesuter a lib?
It never was a Bush administration member.
That is an old trick used by the libs and third party whiners. Whenever any old rat hold over from the Carter years to the Clintoon years in the State, Justice, FBI, CIA, EPA, Energy, HEW, or ? causes a problem or leaks sensitive data, he/she/it automatically become an administration member. The left wing mediots and their butt buddies their third party whores/pimps scream that the offense was caused by a administration member. It wasn't!
They are not admin members. They are lifer civil sevice rats still working for the Federal agency they have been with for years. Or they are like Wilson, lifers under the rats, who would do anything to harm GW.
This will be a real learning experience for them.
I have no ideal who the prosecutor is,
Maybe she can provide testimony about how often, if ever, Plame served as a source to reporters on the subject of WMD and maybe she can testify to how well known Plame's affiliation with the CIA was known. And maybe she can testify if the Wilsons tried to peddle to her their false story about Niger and Joe Wilson "debunking" the SOTU yellowcake story (an outrageous misrepresentatoin of the scope and findings of his tea-sipping journey).
In other words, just because a reporter is called, in my theory, does not mean they engaged in wrong-doing. It may be they are called to provide information about others...like the Wilsons and their cohorts in this plot to bring down a president.
Judith Miller is actually a very good reporter...
Nonsense. From day one I've pointed out that it was not, and my theory has been vindicated time and again, to the point that the evidence is to date it would have been *impossible* for a Bush WH associate to have "leaked" (that is not what happened here, either) anything.
Floyd Abrams said on Howard Kurtz show that you've been right all along: no crime here and now that the reporters are being drug into it, all of a sudden it's a First Amendment issue.
Oh--thanks!
I'm still hoping the crime was the Wilsons telling lies, but will probably have to settle for the WH getting full and complete vindication, which would be great so there is no lingering suspicion that they did something wrong.
Russert actually spilled some dirt.
I read it last week.
His "dirt" was that Scooter Libby never talked to him about Valerie Plame, and he, Tim Russert, never spoke about her to Libby.
Thanks for the post, information.
You are welcome.
Remember the mediots and Wilson screaming for an investigation. Now that one is going on, they got what they wished for. The results are 180 from what they wanted.
Ta-daaa!! Another winner from Grampa Dave!
I have been using versions of the New KKK
Komrade Kerry's Kamp and Komrade Kerry's Kerrorists
since the Dox in Sox event where Bergular stole the Documents.
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