Posted on 09/30/2005 11:41:18 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON - New York Times reporter Judith Miller testified before a grand jury Friday, ending her silence in the investigation into whether White House officials leaked the name of a covert CIA operative, Valerie Plame.
Miller, out of jail after 85 days, said, "I was a journalist doing my job, protecting my source until my source freed me to perform my civic duty to testify."
Escorted by her lawyers and New York Times Publisher Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr., Miller met with reporters for several minutes after spending more than four hours inside the courthouse, most of it behind closed doors with a grand jury.
Miller said she agreed to meet with the grand jury after hearing "directly from my source" by telephone and in a letter that she should cooperate with the investigation by Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald.
"I concluded from this that my source genuinely wanted me to testify," she told reporters.
"I served 85 days in jail because of my belief in the importance of upholding the confidential relationship journalists have with their sources," Miller said. "Believe me, I did not want to be in jail. But I would have stayed even longer."
As part of the deal, Fitzgerald agreed in advance that he would limit Miller's testimony to her communications with her source "and that was very important to me," Miller added.
"I know what my conscience would allow and ... I stood fast to that," the reporter said.
Miller's testimony has been characterized by Fitzgerald as key to his investigation into the White House role in the disclosure of Plame's identity.
Although Miller declined to identify her source, The New York Times identified him as Lewis "Scooter" Libby, chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney.
Until a few months ago, the White House had maintained for nearly two years that Libby and presidential aide Karl Rove were not involved in leaking the identity of 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, released from jail Thursday night, had 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 the criminal investigation that could still result in charges against government officials.
White House aides signed waivers earlier in the probe, but Miller wanted personal assurances that her source's waiver was voluntary.
Miller's newspaper identified Libby as her source, saying that Miller and Libby spoke in person on July 8, 2003, then talked by phone later that week.
On Thursday, Times publisher Sulzberger said that "as we have throughout this ordeal, we continue to support Judy Miller in the decision she has made."
Fitzgerald spokesman Randall Samborn declined to comment.
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.
New York Times reporter Judith Miller waves as she leaves U. S. District Court in Washington Friday, Sept. 30, 2005, after testifying to a grand jury investigating the leaking of a CIA operatives identity. Miller served three months in jail for earlier refusing to divulge her source in the matter. (AP Photo/Dennis Cook)
Where ya off to, Judith?
I'm going to DisneyLand!
New York Times reporter Judith Miller speaks outside the U.S. Federal District Court in Washington D.C. September 30, 2005. Miller testified before a grand jury investigating the leak of CIA information on Friday and said she hoped her nearly three months in jail would lead to a federal law shielding journalists. REUTERS/Micah Walter
I thought grand jury testimony was supposed to be secret?
Are we being told that the NYT had a reporter present at the Grand Jury?
New York Times reporter Judith Miller gives thumbs up as she leaves U. S. District Court in Washington Friday, Sept. 30, 2005, after testifying to a grand jury investigating the leaking of a CIA operatives identity. Miller served three months in jail for earlier refusing to divulge her source in the matter. (AP Photo/Dennis Cook)
IF they taught her to make license plates, then she came out of jail with at least ONE honorable skill.
The question is - Does this mean anything? Probably not.
New York Times reporter Judith Miller talks to reporters outside the U.S. Federal District Court in Washington D.C. September 30, 2005. (Micah Walter/Reuters)
The question is - Does this mean anything? Probably not.
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That's why I didn't put it in Breaking.
I am interested in the cut of her boots..were they wader or knee high?
So devastating, that it resulted in Bush's defeat to President Kerry.
(Do I really need a sarcasm tag for this one? Please don't hit the abuse button).
I think this enables Fitzgerald to issue a report clearing Libby of any wrongdoing.
New York Times reporter Judith Miller speaks outside the U.S. Federal District Court in Washington D.C. September 30, 2005. Miller testified before a grand jury investigating the leak of CIA information on Friday and said she hoped her nearly three months in jail would lead to a federal law shielding journalists. REUTERS/Micah Walter
So, just out of the blue Ms. Miller decided to telephone her source and ask personally for a release -- although her attorney had received a written release over a year?
How would her gaining the personal release from her "source" lead to a federal law shielding journalists?
This doesn't compute. If she'd had really wanted to make a point about journalists protecting their sources, she wouldn't have made the telephone call, no?
What's wrong with this picture?
I guess we won't know until the prosecutor Fitzgerald makes a report or a files a charge.
But it is very strange, indeed.
This is shocking to me to learn the Scooter Libby is her source, especially when over a year ago we learned that Scooter Libby was her source and had released her from protecting Libby as a source.
I guess this was her way of getting away from the hum drum job she had... and still has.. ;-)
All for personal publicity.
But didn't Lewis Libby release Judith Miller from the obligation quite some time ago? I guess this was her way of making a "statement". Maybe she will develope an "expose" of the conditions of life behind bars.
I remember thinking then, "There's something wrong with this woman."
Good link. I like this portion:
"Digby writes: "[I]t seems obvious now that Jeralyn was right; Judy's real issue was being asked about her other sources under oath. It looks like they came to some sort of agreement about that.""
I am guessing those "other sources" besides Libby are probably the original sources of the Plame leak. What is going on????
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