Two reporters facing jail time for refusing to answer questions in a criminal-leaks investigation will not have to serve any of their sentence while they appeal to the Supreme Court, under an agreement with the special prosecutor.
New York Times reporter Judith Miller and Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper were found in contempt of court and were threatened with as long as 18 months in jail by a federal judge last year; they had refused to discuss their confidential government sources from reporting they did in 2003 on the Bush administration's statement that Iraq was trying to obtain nuclear weapons. The threat of jail increased last week when a federal appeals court in Washington refused to hear the reporters' appeal of the ruling that they must answer the questions or go to jail.
Special Prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald agreed not to oppose the reporters' request to stay their jail sentences while they make an expedited request for a hearing before the Supreme Court, according to papers filed with the federal appeals court Monday. If the Supreme Court agrees to hear their case, the sentences would be automatically stayed again until it rules, based on the deal struck between Fitzgerald and the reporters' lawyers.
For more than 18 months, Fitzgerald has been investigating whether senior Bush administration officials knowingly leaked the name of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame to reporters in summer 2003. Administration officials have acknowledged that they were trying at the time to raise doubts about public criticism that Plame's husband, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, leveled against President Bush for going to war with Iraq. But sources close to the case say it is unlikely Fitzgerald can prove anyone committed a felony by knowingly revealing the name of a covert operative.
The probe began soon after Plame's name appeared in a July 2003 column by syndicated columnist Robert D. Novak. The column raised doubts about Wilson's criticism of Bush's arguments for going to war against Iraq and about his assertion that the administration twisted information he gained on that subject in a fact-finding mission to Niger. Novak reported that two anonymous senior administration officials told him Plame had recommended Wilson for the assignment.
