Reading between the lines of the volumes of punditry on The Miller Case enabled us to produce the following more straightforward report:
By David Kravitz and Bob Neer
Special to the New York Times
NEW YORK — Judith Miller, the Times reporter jailed for 85 days for refusing to testify in the ongoing Valerie Plame investigation, today offered a confused rationale for her behavior. Suspicions have deepened that the reporter, her attorney, and her employer are being self-serving in their handling of the matter, which delayed a criminal investigation for months.
Ms. Miller said she went to prison to avoid the implication she might "pressure a source into waiving confidentiality." The source at issue, Vice President Dick Cheney’s Chief of Staff Scooter Libby, however, has stated he released Ms. Miller from any expectation of confidentiality months before she was asked to testify.
Moreover, Ms. Miller says she told the jury that Mr. Libby did not tell her Plame was a CIA agent — the crime under investigation — further undercutting her argument she had anyone to protect.
Ms. Miller’s personal credibility, already strained by questions about the quality of her reporting on the run-up to the Iraq war, has come under further suspicion.
Investigators have revealed that Ms. Miller’s notes for the conversation with Mr. Libby at issue contained the name "Valerie Flame." Ms. Miller, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist for one of the country’s leading newspapers, says she cannot remember why she wrote the name down in the midst of a conversation with Mr. Libby.
Ms. Miller also wrote down a variation of Ms. Plame’s married name "Victoria Wilson," in notes of a conversation a few days later with Mr. Libby.
The Times reported that Ms. Miller subsequently denied to her editors that she had discussed Ms. Plame with Mr. Libby.
Times editors and the newpaper’s publisher have distanced themselves from Ms. Miller in the wake of the revelations. Publisher Arthur Sulzberger and the paper’s executive editor, Bill Keller, maintained today that they knew few details about Ms. Miller’s conversations with her confidential source otherthan his name. Mr. Keller said he learned about the "Valerie Flame" notation only this month. The newspaper said Mr. Sulzberger was told about it on Thursday.
"This car had her hand on the wheel," Mr. Sulzberger said.
"I think what was really going on here was that everyone — Abrams, Miller, and Libby — wanted Miller in jail. Abrams, because he is a famous First Amendment lawyer and what better way to increase his public profile than to have a New York Times journalist in jail over a confidential source; Miller, because she becomes much more famous and gets a better book deal if she goes to jail; and Libby because he doesn’t want to be nailed for espionage or perjury. And when all the parties to a negotiation want the same thing, that’s usually what they end up with," said one well-informed observer. Floyd Abrams is an attorney for the Times.
The stunt explanation was bolstered by Ms. Miller’s description of her efforts to confirm that Libby had indeed offered her a waiver — in the face of repeated confirmations; her confusing argument that "coded messages" with opposite meanings were embedded in straightforward communications; and her statement that as soon as extended jail time loomed she decided to testify.
Ms. Miller argued that repeated statements by Mr. Libby’s lawyer that she was free to testify, and a two-page letter stating that she was free to testify were insufficient. She insisted on a face to face meeting, later converted to a telephone conference call. The jockeying extended her incarceration for months.
The statements from Mr. Libby’s lawyer, and the letter from Mr. Libby himself, that she was free to testify were actually "coded messages" that she should not testify, Ms. Miller says.
Ms. Miller argues she decided to abandon her quest when it appeared prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald might empanel a new jury. The move would have extended her incarceration by up to 18 months. "At that point," Ms. Miller said, "I realized if and when he did that, objectively things would change, and at that point, I might really be locked in."
Ms. Miller has announced that she plans to take time off from the newspaper to write a book about her adventure.
Mr. Abrams and other attorneys received millions of dollars in legal fees, according to the Times.
Newspaper executives, who initially feted Ms. Miller with a steak dinner at the Ritz-Carlton in Georgetown, have been reduced to increasingly forlorne pleas for forebearance. "It’s too early to judge," said Mr. Keller, the executive editor.
The criminal investigation continues.
