Judith “Miss Run Amok” Miller grows agitated during a brief phone interview with the WSJ:
WSJ.com - Reporter's Account Suggests Probe's Tack
Ms. Miller's story also raises the possibility that [Scooter] Libby and his lawyer sought to discourage her from telling what she knew. If true, that could constitute evidence of obstruction of justice, experts say.Ms. Miller initially refused to testify before the grand jury, contending that Mr. Libby's release of his confidentiality agreement wasn't really voluntary. She eventually went to jail for 85 days -- from early July through late September -- rather than appear. She finally reached a deal last month with Mr. Fitzgerald to testify about her discussions with Mr. Libby.
She describes at least two instances that might be construed as attempts to influence her testimony. Early on in the investigation, she wrote that one of her lawyers, Floyd Abrams, said Mr. Libby's lawyer was looking for assurances that she wouldn't incriminate Mr. Libby. Mr. Libby's lawyer, Joseph Tate, told the Times that Ms. Miller's account was “outrageous.” “I never once suggested that she should not testify,” Mr. Tate said in an email to the Times. Mr. Tate didn't return a call from The Wall Street Journal seeking comment.
Despite giving a lengthy first-person account, Ms. Miller left some pivotal questions unanswered. For instance, she didn't disclose whether she was asked by Mr. Fitzgerald in her first grand-jury appearance about meeting with Mr. Libby in June 2003. Her failure to disclose that meeting led to her second testimony before the grand jury after some of her notes were found. But neither her account nor the Times story discusses how the notes were found and what set off a search for them.
In a brief telephone interview yesterday, Ms. Miller said she discovered the June 2003 notes in her office after being prompted to seek out answers to another question Mr. Fitzgerald had asked her. “There was an open question about something, and I said I would go back and look and see if there was anything in my notes that would address that question,” she said yesterday.
She said she found the notebook in her office. She reiterated that she couldn't recall who told her the name that she transcribed as “Valerie Flame.” “I don't remember who told me the name,” she said, growing agitated. “I wasn't writing a story, remember?” Asked if the other source was [Karl]. Rove, she replied, “I'm not going to discuss anyone else that I talked to.”
Strange, how such a crack reporter can't remember names and sources of such an important case, a case that put her in jail for 85 days, and a case that placed her in front of a grand jury on two different occasions. Maybe that's why she's so 'agitated'
A spokeswoman for the Times said Ms. Miller was taking time off and was expected to return to the newsroom at some point.I bet her colleagues can't wait for this day....ahem.
and some other media figures of note, have also some 'splainin' to do...
Ms. Miller isn't the only witness whom prosecutors have called. In a Time magazine story in July, reporter Matthew Cooper discussed his two appearances before the grand jury in the case -- the first related to conversations with Mr. Libby and the second, Mr. Rove. In a first-person piece, he wrote that Mr. Rove told him that Mr. Wilson's wife worked at the CIA on issues related to weapons of mass destruction but didn't name her. In his testimony related to Mr. Libby, Mr. Cooper said that the vice president's adviser told him “I've heard that too” when asked if Mr. Wilson's wife sent her husband to Niger.Washington Post reporter Walter Pincus disclosed in a first-person piece that ran in July in the journalism magazine Neiman Reports that he provided a deposition to the special prosecutor, detailing a July 12, 2003, conversation with an administration official who said that Mr. Wilson's trip to Niger in February 2002 “was set up as a boondoggle by his wife, an analyst with the agency working on weapons of mass destruction.”
One big unknown is what columnist Robert “Dark Lord” Novak [aka Douche-bag for Liberty] has disclosed to Mr. Fitzgerald about his sources. His was the first article, published on July 14, 2003, that named Mr. Wilson's wife, Ms. Plame, as an agency operative on weapons of mass destruction, noting that “two senior administration officials told me Wilson's wife suggested sending him to Niger.”
Tags: Frog March, /media
