The source, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff Lewis "Scooter" Libby, spoke to Miller in July 2003 and may have revealed the name of CIA operative Valerie Plame.
A federal investigation into whether Bush administration officials leaked Plame's identity was launched after syndicated columnist Robert Novak first revealed her name in a July 14, 2003 column.
Novak's article, which cited "two administration officials" as his source, appeared about a week after the agent's husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson IV, publicly challenged President Bush's claim in his State of the Union address that Iraq had tried to buy uranium from the African nation of Niger.
Mathew Cooper of Time magazine testified before the grand jury about a conversation with Libby in 2003, but Cooper resisted a subpoena to appear to discuss a conversation with White House senior political strategist Karl Rove.
Miller's decision not to testify landed her in jail in July. She never actually mentioned Plame in an article.
New York Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger released a statement Friday saying, "As we have throughout this ordeal, we continue to support Judy Miller in the decision she has made. We are pleased that she has finally received a direct and uncoerced waiver, both by phone and in writing, releasing her from any claim of responsibility and enabling her to testify," the Associated Press reported.
Miller said she "went to jail to preserve the time-honored principle that a journalist must respect a promise not to reveal the identity of a confidential source, I chose to take the consequences, 85 days in prison, rather than violate that promise. The principle was more important to uphold than my personal freedom."
Special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, who heads the federal investigation, has sought testimony from Miller for over a year. Now that she has complied, the investigation may be nearing its end.
It is unclear whether any White House officials will be charged.
President Bush has said he would fire anyone found criminally involved in the leak.
-- Compiled from wire reports and other media sources
|
|
September 30, 2005, 5pm EDT
