Miller's Lawyer Says He Sought Deal

AP ^ | October 2, 2005

[Leroy S. Mort]

WASHINGTON (AP) - Floyd Abrams, the attorney for New York Times reporter Judith Miller, said Sunday he had tried a year ago to reach an agreement with Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald concerning Miller's testimony about the leak of a covert CIA officer's identity.

Instead, a federal judge ordered Miller jailed when she refused to testify before the grand jury investigating the Bush administration's disclosure of CIA officer Valerie Plame's name. The reporter spent 85 days in jail before being released Thursday after she agreed to testify.

Appearing Sunday on CNN's ``Reliable Sources,'' Abrams said: ``I tried to get a deal a year ago. I spoke to Mr. Fitzgerald, the prosecutor, and he did not agree at that time to something that he later did agree to, which was to limit the scope of the questions he would ask, so as to assure that the only source he would effectively be asking about was Mr. Libby.''

The Times reported that I. Lewis ``Scooter'' Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, was Miller's source. In a statement Thursday, Miller said, ``My source has now voluntarily and personally released me from my promise of confidentiality regarding our conversations.'' She appeared before the grand jury Friday.

Miller held out, Abrams said Sunday, in part because ``she has other sources and was very concerned about the possibility of having to reveal those sources, or going back to jail because of them.'' Before she finally testified, Fitzgerald promised to limit his questioning to the Libby contacts regarding Plame.

[Leroy S. Mort]

The Times reported that I. Lewis ``Scooter'' Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, was Miller's source.

Not "one of Miller's sources"? I'm shocked.

[FlingWingFlyer]

"...she refused to testify before the grand jury investigating the Bush administration's disclosure of CIA officer Valerie Plame's name."

A grand jury made up of 12 investigators. Cool! I didn't know we had already decided that the Bush administration had disclosed Plame's name that had already been disclosed at least twice before in the "media." Too weird for me.

[Big Giant Head]

Plot thickens! Self ping bookmark thing.

[Carling]

Instead, a federal judge ordered Miller jailed when she refused to testify before the grand jury investigating the Bush administration's disclosure of CIA officer Valerie Plame's name.

The Bush Admin is charged, tried, and convicted according the AP.

Example # 145345646 of why I don't read the papers or watch the evening news. Heck, without FR, I'd probably never read a single MSM article.

[tubebender]

Sounds like Miller is shielding her real source.

[Keith in Iowa]

>>>...Sounds like Miller is shielding her real source...

Plame herself.

[Rokke]

"Example # 145345646 of why I don't read the papers or watch the evening news. Heck, without FR, I'd probably never read a single MSM article."

You and me both. The irony is, I'm a news addict. But the only news on TV I'll watch is Special Report with Brit Hume, and the only other news source I turn to is FR. Fortunately, that is usually enough to fix my addiction.

[Ann Archy]

WHY did he fold to asking her ONLY about Libby??? This makes me SICK!

[stylin19a]

scratchin my head....reporters have multiple sources on different subject.
No way Fitz cares about sources for things other than Plame
Logic dictates the "other" sources are also about the Plame matter
Which begs the question: If the "other" sources are Plame related, how can Fitz offer this deal ?

[presently no screen name]

Number 3 reporting in. without FR, I'd probably never read a single MSM article.

[Leroy S. Mort]

If the "other" sources are Plame related, how can Fitz offer this deal ?

Perhaps the other sources are not within the Administration and therefore not subject to his purview as Special Prosecutor?

[McGavin999]

Which begs the question: If the "other" sources are Plame related, how can Fitz offer this deal ?

Because if no crime was committed by the disclosure, it wouldn't matter who the other source is. Fitzgerald was tasked with investigating to see of a crime was committed by the disclosure of this information. Perhaps, in the course of this grand jury it was discovered that it was common knowledge that Plame was employed by the CIA. If that's the case, and if there was no intent to disclose "covert" status, then there is no crime.

[Lancey Howard]

without FR, I'd probably never read a single MSM article.

Completely true in my case. Cancelled the newspapers long ago. Plus, I do not believe that I watched more than ten total network newscasts (Rather, Jennings, Brokaw) in the past 7+ years since I started getting most of my news here.

[bpjam]

Why is there an assumption that Libby is her 'source?' Just cuz Floyd "Media Whore" Abrams says so? We actually have no evidence or even an allegation that Libby told Miller anything!!! For all we really know, Miller was the one who told Rove AND Libby about Plame!! Have you heard anybody floating that one? Of course not, but it holds up to the light better than the nonsense that Rove and Libby where 'out to get' Plame (whom they had never heard of before).

I'm putting my money on a reporter being the original source for all of this. Novak could be the first person in this entire circle jerk of rumors. And Novak says that he was told by THE CIA. There you go. End of story. No big conspiracy just some bureaucrat being exposed for trying some political espionage in getting her buffoon husband into another government paying gig to travel to Africa to very rumors.

The only person who has done anything potentially illegal at this point is Joe Wilson who flat out lied about how he ended up going to Africa and who sent him!! If he told Fitzgerald the same phoney story he put in his book, then he can say hello to perjury charges. Otherwise, this is a non-story and never was one. Its like trying to chase down the grand jury leaks during the Whitewater investigation. The media blames Starr while they simultaneously accept confidential information from the Clintoons and still run stories speculating about whether Starr was the source! If actual news or actual facts where the standard, this would never have made it to the web even.

[M. Thatcher]

Ping to self

[GOPyouth]

concerning Miller's testimony about the leak of a covert CIA officer's identity.

I wasn't aware that employment with the CIA automatically made one covert. I think the author of this AP article needs to check his/her facts before he/she makes such a statement that Plame was undercover as of 2 years ago.

[stylin19a]

Since I'm doing the what if....

It doesn't matter whether other sources are in the admin or not. Outing a covert CIA operative is against the law.
That's what Fitz is trying to find out...if the law was broken and, if it was, who broke it.
If Miller had "other" Plame related sources, what if it was one of the "other" sources who mentioned Plame first ?

If no crime was committed no sources matter.
Since they/we don't know "If" no crime is committed, all sources should be relevant.

[jwpjr]

Great catch! Notice how they just drop that in, among all the other blah, blah, blah. So very typical of the left and the MSM.

[Enchante]

"Miller held out, Abrams said Sunday, in part because ``she has other sources and was very concerned about the possibility of having to reveal those sources, or going back to jail because of them.'' Before she finally testified, Fitzgerald promised to limit his questioning to the Libby contacts regarding Plame."

If this is correct about the deal Miller has reached, it confirms the worst: Miller has won the battle and Fitzgerald has capitulated. Limiting the testimony to her contact with Libby frees her from having to testify about how she FIRST heard about Valerie Plame, assuming (as I suspect) that the information did not originate with Libby. For the delusional left (including the MSM) the case is only about Libby and Rove. But for anyone who actually cares about getting the facts out (the role of other potential sources around Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame, CIA, Tenet, Colin Powell, etc.) it is a TOTAL OUTRAGE to think that Fitzgerald would let Miller slither away without full testimony about the source(s) that actually first provided the info about Valerie Plame, and who provided the most specific and detailed info about Plame. Unless Fitzgerald has some conclusive evidence that only Libby ever discussed Plame with Miller (and that seems impossible without knowing all about Miller's other sources), it is simply unacceptable to allow the investigation to be limited in this way. Sounds like Fitzgerald is following DNC talking points rather than conducting a real, full investigation with "no holds barred."

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks.

This explains a lot which we hadn't been told.

It is a safe bet that Miller didn't go to jail to protect anyone in GW's administration.