[Mb-civic] Judge Holds Second Reporter in Contempt

[Michael Butler]

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    Judge Holds Second Reporter in Contempt
    By Curt Anderson
    The Associated Press

     Wednesday 13 October 2004

     WASHINGTON - A second reporter was held in contempt Wednesday by a
federal judge for refusing to reveal confidential sources before a grand
jury investigating the leak of an undercover CIA officer's identity.

     U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan ordered Time magazine reporter
Matthew Cooper jailed for up to 18 months and the magazine fined $1,000 a
day for refusing to comply with a grand jury subpoena seeking the testimony.
Hogan suspended the jail time and fine pending the outcome of an appeal.

     The ruling was nearly identical to one issued last week by Hogan in the
case of Judith Miller, a reporter for The New York Times who is also
refusing to name her sources. Miller and Cooper, both represented by lawyer
Floyd Abrams, are expected to join together in appealing their cases on
First Amendment grounds.

     "No reporter in the United States should have to go to jail for simply
doing their job," said Cooper, who is Time's White House correspondent.

     Hogan repeatedly has cited the Supreme Court in ruling that reporters
do not enjoy special protection from providing testimony to grand juries
unless they can show prosecutorial harassment or bad faith. Hogan said he
could find no evidence of either on the part of U.S. Attorney Patrick
Fitzgerald, who was appointed special prosecutor in the investigation.

     "I'm convinced this is not a fishing expedition or an improper exercise
of prosecutorial authority," Hogan said.

     The investigation concerns whether a crime was committed when someone
leaked the identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame, whose name was published
by syndicated columnist Robert Novak on July 14, 2003.

     The column appeared after Plame's husband, former Ambassador Joseph
Wilson, wrote a newspaper opinion column criticizing President Bush's claim
that Iraq had sought uranium in Niger - a claim the CIA had asked Wilson to
check out.

     Wilson has said he believes his wife's name was leaked as payback for
his outspokenness.

     Disclosure of the identity of an undercover intelligence officer can be
a federal crime, if prosecutors can show the leak was intentional and the
leaker knew about the officer's secret status.

     Novak, who cited two senior administration officials as his sources,
has refused to say whether he has testified or been subpoenaed. Fitzgerald
declined comment Wednesday.

     Prosecutors have interviewed President Bush, Vice President Cheney,
Secretary of State Colin Powell and other current or former administration
officials in the investigation. At least five reporters have been
subpoenaed.

     In August, Cooper agreed to provide limited testimony about a
conversation he had with Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Cheney's
chief of staff, after Libby released Cooper from his promise of
confidentiality. Fitzgerald then issued a second, broader subpoena seeking
the names of other sources.

     "The prosecutor came back a few days later and basically asked for
everything in my notebook," Cooper said.

     Abrams said he expected legal filings in the appeals of both Miller and
Cooper to be completed by Nov. 10 before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the
District of Columbia Circuit, which would then likely schedule an oral
argument. That means the CIA leak criminal investigation, which began in
September 2003, could drag on into early 2005.

 

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