Judy Miller Could Be Charged With Criminal Contempt=MORE TIME

[dogday]

Lawyers in the CIA leaks investigation are concerned that special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald may seek criminal contempt charges against New York Times reporter Judith Miller, a rare move that could significantly lengthen her time in jail.

Miller, now in her 10th day in the Alexandria jail, already faces as much as four months of incarceration for civil contempt after refusing to answer questions before a grand jury about confidential conversations she had in reporting a story in the summer of 2003. Fitzgerald and Chief U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan have both raised the possibility in open court that Miller could be charged with criminal contempt if she continues to defy Hogan's order to cooperate in the investigation of who may have unlawfully leaked the name of undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame to the media.

The unusual threat in the case underscores the sensitivity of an investigation that has reached the highest levels of the White House and the prosecutor's determination to extract information from reluctant journalists even though he has yet to charge anyone with a crime. What secrets Miller can unlock for Fitzgerald -- and the reasons he has so doggedly pursued her -- have been a subject of considerable mystery.

While media coverage in recent days has focused on conversations White House senior adviser Karl Rove had with reporters, two sources say Miller spoke with Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, during the key period in July 2003 that is the focus of Fitzgerald's investigation.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/15/AR2005071502080.html

[mrbscott19]

1. I know....

Send her to Abu Ghraib. They're real good at extracting information. After all, it's just some guys blowing off steam, right? She can handle it. :spank:

[roguevalley]

2. some people say she is the source for this stuff. I don't know how

that would work but nothing would surprise me about anything anymore.

[pacalo]

3. Fitzgerald is a hero.

My favorite excerpts:

But in this closely held investigation, federal appeals court judges of very different ideological stripes and Hogan have reviewed secret evidence and have agreed that Miller's and Cooper's claims of a right to protect their sources is outweighed by the public interest in investigating a possible breach of national security.

(snip)

"I think Judith Miller is in much graver danger than she might be otherwise, because this prosecutor seems to want to pursue every avenue with a vengeance," said Mary Cheh, a professor of criminal law at George Washington University. "I'd be very worried."

[applegrove]

4. You know - la melange! It mixes! New times, new prosecutors, new

laws broken, new trials, new situations. If Judy just cannot tell the truth she harbors the problem with the investigation not hitting conclusion. So it goes on. It is what it is. These are very different times than Deep Throat. People have lied - drinking kool-aid so they lied for delusional reasons. But they lied. I do not expect prosecutors to be namby pamby. I just don't. Oh my gosh we are in such a sophisticated world. And, as always, much more sophisticated than politicos or politico reporters can imagine. They are for public consumption at a consumer level. The big brains...the really big ones in the law or wherever they are...they are ahead of the game. No sorry little system can tame them on and win.

Remember Rasputin showed all of Russia that the powers that be were superficial and superfluous in their attempts at reality. useless and needless as they, in a sorry way, met all their needs. Useless a rulers. Nobody - will put up with that shit when it impales itself all over reality. At some point it just looks dumb. Elites doing what??? Nobody with a brain can make it okay in their own minds. And, as the neocons were always afraid, the intelligentsia are the ones going - okay: What? We have to get 19th century stupid? Nobody sent me a dance card when I was coming up through the prosecution ranks.

Man - politicos have never been at the head of anything. The populist law or the populist movements are always so far ahead. How do you land the braininacs amongst us? I'm guessing they were young so they were not a-squeezed at Chintz filled Lainai & gin & tonic meetings ore the last decade or two. Ouch? People who think thought?

[tiptoe]

5. VIDEO: Wilson was told Libby was at a WH meeting...A "work up" on him

was decided upon at that meeting:

07/14/05 Fmr. Amb. Joe Wilson & Sen. Schumer (D-NY) on Karl Rove & CIA Leak

9:20 Wilson begins speaking
9:40 "...Meetings were held in March 2003 -- which was 4 months before I wrote an opinion piece -- in the White House...And those meetings led to a decision to do a "Work Up" on Wilson...an intelligence operation to find out everything you can about Wilson and his family, and I'm told that at least one of the participants at that meeting was Scooter Libby."