Russert Held in Contempt in CIA Leak Case

[trumad]

This headline makes no sense to me. It's my understanding from other sources and this piece that only the Time Magazine guy is held in contempt and that Russert cooperated? Am I missing somehting here?

Russert Held in Contempt in CIA Leak Case
NBC's Tim Russert Held in Contempt of Court for Refusing to Testify in Probe of CIA Leak

The Associated Press


WASHINGTON Aug. 9, 2004 — A federal judge held a reporter for Time magazine in contempt of court Monday for refusing to testify before a grand jury investigating the leak of the identity of a covert CIA officer.

In an order issued July 20 but not made public until Monday, U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan ruled that Time's Matthew Cooper and "Meet the Press" host Tim Russert were required to testify "regarding alleged conversations they had with a specified executive branch official."
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Politics/ap20040809_1236.html

[zaj]

1. Why isn't Novak being held in contempt?

At least then, if he was in jail, we wouldn't have to listen to him on TV.

[Richardo]

2. He is....oh you mean by a *court*

:)

[MidwestTransplant]

6. I am sure they will get to Novack soon enough.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

3. Bad headline - it's wrong

as you can see, it does not agree with the facts set out in the article. Maybe it is wishful thinking on ABC's part - they were hoping he would be held in contempt, they had that headline ready, and accidently pasted it in.

[lancdem]

4. The headline is wrong

Russert testified to avoid being held in contempt.

[SoCalDem]

8. Yeppers.. He sang like a canary

:)

It killed me to see Wolfie reoprting this story and NEVER ONCE MENTIONED NOVAK...

[HootieMcBoob]

16. I don't think he sang very much

according to the article:

NBC said in its statement that Russert told Fitzgerald in the interview that he did not know Plame's name or her identity as a CIA officer, and that he did not provide that information to Libby. The statement said that Libby had told the FBI about his conversation with Russert and requested that it be disclosed.

But I don't understand why it says that Russert didn't provide that information to Libby. Aren't they trying to figure out who in the Whitehouse provided the information to the journalists? Particularly Novak? What the hell is going on here?

[spotbird]

22. Because Libby has been working on his alibi.

The court required Russert's testimony on a narrow issue that couldn't be established elsewhere and that would aid in the determination of the guilt or innocence of Libby. (The court didn't mention Libby, but NBC told us it was Libby.) Russert agreed to stop fighting the subpoena because he was not violating a confidence by refusing to testify, his silence was giving Libby an excuse to avoid criminal responsibility for the leak.

Here's how. For Libby's leak to be criminal he would have had to obtained the classified information as part of his clearance and leaked it knowing it was classified. Since he knew he wasn't going to avoid responsibility by denying the leak, too many people knew to keep that secret, he chose to claim that he didn't know Plame's status was classified. That lack of knowledge would exonerate him, if he could prove it. To establish that he learned of Plame's job innocently he claimed he heard it from an outsider, Russert.

Scooter counted on Russert to keep quiet to pull this off. Russert tried, but there is no journalistic obligation to a source to back up their alibi, if it's false. So Russert spilled the beans.

[HootieMcBoob]

5. Hmmmm

Now what? I doesn't say that in the body of the story, just in the headline. Very strange. I don't know now. Is Russert in contempt or not?

[trumad]

7. The headline and the underlying headline is wrong.

NBC's Tim Russert Held in Contempt of Court for Refusing to Testify in Probe of CIA Leak

Sloppy ass journalism

[flpoljunkie]

9. Hmm..they are asking Russert what he told one Scooter Libby re Plame

NBC said in its statement that Russert told Fitzgerald in the interview that he did not know Plame's name or her identity as a CIA officer, and that he did not provide that information to Libby. The statement said that Libby had told the FBI about his conversation with Russert and requested that it be disclosed.

Very interesting...Libby wanting Russert to disclose their conversation

[havocmom]

11. One might hope there will be some perjury charges made

since Libby, Cheney and the rest of the hoods have testified. There was more than the outing of Ms. Plame, there was the coverup too.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

20. wtf

bizarre

[teryang]

10. Russert didn't tell Rove WTF?

Isn't the issue whether Rove told Russert? What a screwball process.

[hatrack]

12. Damn! What would Big Russ say?

:puke:

[Mr.Green93]

13. Pacino screaming, "You're out of order! ...

[Leilani]

18. Pacino screaming, At-ti-ca!!!!

[FreakinDJ]

14. I think they have more serious charges in mind for Novak

I believe he committed a felony or several

Can't wait to read his "Bars Review"

[gatlingforme]

21. LOL, Novak is a moron who can't distinguish himself from God.

[FreakinDJ]

23. Novak is a idiot about to become a dance partner

for some big burly cell mate named spike

[PragMantisT]

15. Funny how Russert and Time magazine's Matthew Cooper

think that they should be able to maintain confidentiality of an informed source, but not about a CIA operative.

Who deserves more confidentiality? A political hack or a person working to keep our country safe and informed?

Curiouser and curiouser!

[saracat]

17. O f course Russert didn't reveal Plames name to Scooter Libby.I thought

the issue was Scotter Libby leaking to Russert.Why would Russert Leak Plume's name to Libby? Wouldn't Libby know and if he did there wouldn't be an issue so long as he didn't tell anyone..Weird.

[olddem43]

19. It seems pretty obvious that Libby was

shopping for someone break the story and tried Russert, the Time person and finally got Novak to do it. Whether Libby names higher ups is the question.

[retread]

24. What's the big deal? I also hold Russert in contempt.

*