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Miller has chosen not to reveal her source. Cooper has been given permission by his source to cooperate. Wouldn't that indicate two different sources?
Reporter Jailed for Refusal to Name Leak Source
The Associated Press
Wednesday 06 July 2005
Times' Miller disobeyed order to testify on disclosure of CIA agent’s name.
Washington - A US judge ordered New York Times reporter Judith Miller to jail Wednesday for refusing to divulge her source in the investigation of the leak of an undercover CIA officer's name.
"There is still a realistic possibility that confinement might cause her to testify," US District Judge Thomas Hogan said. Miller stood up, hugged her lawyer and was escorted from the courtroom.
Earlier, Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper, in an about-face, told Hogan that he would now cooperate with a federal prosecutor's investigation into the leak of the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame because his source gave him specific authority to discuss their conversation. "I am prepared to testify. I will comply" with the court's order, Cooper said.
Cooper took the podium in the court and told the judge, "Last night I hugged my son goodbye and told him it might be a long time before I see him again."
"I went to bed ready to accept the sanctions" for not testifying, Cooper said. But he told the judge that not long before his early afternoon appearance, he had received "in somewhat dramatic fashion" a direct personal communication from his source freeing him from his commitment to keep the source's identity secret.
Floyd Abrams, a prominent First Amendment lawyer, told reporters after Miller's jailing, "Judy is an honorable woman, adhering to the highest tradition of her profession and the highest tradition of humanity." He called Miller's decision a choice "to take the personal burden of being in jail" rather than breaking her promise of confidentiality to her source.
Time Inc. previously surrendered e-mails and other documents in the probe.
The prosecutor, Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, opposed a request that Cooper and Miller to be granted home detention - instead of jail - for remaining tight-lipped about their sources.
Fitzgerald said allowing them home confinement would make it easier for them to continue to defy the court order.
Last week, Time magazine said it was delivering the notes of reporter Matt Cooper to the special prosecutor investigating who in the Bush administration leaked the identity of undercover CIA officer Valerie Plame.
The case is among the most serious legal clashes between the media and the government since the Supreme Court in 1971 refused to stop the Times and The Washington Post from publishing a classified history of the Vietnam War known as the Pentagon Papers.
The US Supreme Court has refused to hear the reporters’ appeal and the grand jury investigating the leak expires in October. The reporters, if in jail, would be freed at that time.
Time: 'Chilling Effect' on Press Freedom
In a statement released last week, Time said it believes "the Supreme Court has limited press freedom in ways that will have a chilling effect on our work and that may damage the free flow of information that is so necessary in a democratic society."
But it also said that despite its concerns, it would turn over the records to the special counsel investigating the leak.
"The same Constitution that protects the freedom of the press requires obedience to final decisions of the courts and respect for their rulings and judgments. That Time Inc. strongly disagrees with the courts provides no immunity," the statement said.
Novak Says He 'Will Reveal All' Eventually
Fitzgerald, the US attorney in Chicago, has been investigating who in the Bush administration leaked Plame’s identity days after her husband, former Ambassador Joe Wilson, publicly undercut the president’s rationale for invading Iraq.
Plame's name was first published in a 2003 column by Robert Novak, who cited two unidentified senior Bush administration officials as his sources. Novak has refused to say whether he has testified or been subpoenaed.
Novak told CNN he "will reveal all" after the matter is resolved, adding that it is wrong for the government to jail journalists.
Cooper wrote a story subsequently about Plame. Miller did some reporting but did not write a story.
Time turned over Cooper's notes and other documents last week, four days after the Supreme Court refused to consider the case. Cooper's attorneys argued that producing the documents made it unnecessary for him to testify.
Reporters Could Go to Jail Wednesday
Miller and Cooper could be ordered to jail as early as Wednesday when US District Judge Thomas Hogan will hear arguments from Fitzgerald and lawyers for the reporters about whether they should testify.
Hogan has found the reporters in contempt of court for refusing to divulge their sources and he indicated last week that he is prepared to send them to jail if they do not cooperate.
In his court filings, Fitzgerald said it is essential for courts to enforce their contempt orders so that grand juries can get the evidence they need.
Fitzgerald said it would be up to the judge to decide whether to send Cooper to the District of Columbia jail or some other facility. On Friday, Cooper's lawyers argued against sending him to the D.C. jail, saying it is a "dangerous maximum security lockup already overcrowded with a mix of convicted offenders and other detainees awaiting criminal trials."
Miller's lawyers argue that there are no circumstances under which she will talk, but Fitzgerald disagreed.
"There is tension between Miller's claim that confinement will never coerce her to testify and her alternative position that this court should consider less restrictive forms of confinement," the prosecutor wrote.
Time magazine is part of the media company Time Warner Inc.
Thirty-one states and the District of Columbia have shield laws protecting reporters from having to identify their confidential sources. Legislation to establish such protection under federal law has been introduced in Congress.
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