Here's where it gets bizarre: "The discussions were at times strained, with Mr. Libby and Mr. Tate's asserting that they communicated their voluntary waiver to another lawyer for Ms. Miller, Floyd Abrams, more than year ago, according to those briefed on the case."
I'm betting that strained is a euphemism.
And in one of the great journalistic understatements of our time, Johnston and Jehl write: "Much about Ms. Miler's role remains unclear."
Susan Schmidt and Jim VandeHei write in The Washington Post that Libby's lawyer said that he had no idea until he was contacted by Miller's lawyer several weeks ago that Miller thought she had gone to jail for his client.
"We are surprised to learn we had anything to do with her incarceration," Tate told The Post.
Fitzgerald and Chief U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan certainly knew. Schmidt and VandeHei note that when Hogan "ordered Miller to jail, he told her she was mistaken in her belief that she was defending a free press, stressing that the government source she 'alleges she is protecting' had released her from her promise of confidentiality."
The disputed conversations between Miller and Libby took place soon after Plame's husband, Ambassador Joseph Wilson IV, went public with information that cast doubt on the administration's case against Saddam Hussein.
So what did Libby say?
Schmidt and VandeHei write: "According to a source familiar with Libby's account of his conversations with Miller in July 2003, the subject of Wilson's wife came up on two occasions. In the first, on July 8, Miller met with Libby to interview him about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the source said.
"At that time, she asked him why Wilson had been chosen to investigate questions Cheney had posed about whether Iraq tried to buy uranium in the African nation of Niger. Libby, the source familiar with his account said, told her that the White House was working with the CIA to find out more about Wilson's trip and how he was selected.
"Libby told Miller he heard that Wilson's wife had something to do with sending him but he did not know who she was or where she worked, the source said.
"Libby had a second conversation with Miller on July 12 or July 13, the source said, in which he said he had learned that Wilson's wife had a role in sending him on the trip and that she worked for the CIA. Libby never knew Plame's name or that she was a covert operative, the source said."
