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| Time to Comply With Order for Journo's Notes | ||
| 2005-06-30 | ||
| NEW YORK — Time Inc. said Thursday it would comply with a court order to deliver the notes of a reporter threatened with jail in the investigation of the leak of an undercover CIA officer's name. U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan is threatening to jail Matthew Cooper, Time's White House correspondent, and Judith Miller of The New York Times for contempt for refusing to disclose their sources. The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear the reporters' appeal and the grand jury investigating the leak expires in October. The reporters, if in jail, would be freed at that time. In a statement, Time said it believes "the Supreme Court has limited press freedom in ways that will have a chilling effect on our work and that may damage the free flow of information that is so necessary in a democratic society." But it also said that despite its concerns, it will turn over the records to the special counsel investigating the leak. "The same Constitution that protects the freedom of the press requires obedience to final decisions of the courts and respect for their rulings and judgments. That Time Inc. strongly disagrees with the courts provides no immunity," the statement said. The New York Times was preparing a statement, said spokeswoman Catherine Mathis. On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan agreed to hold a hearing next week to consider arguments against jailing the two. But he expressed skepticism that any new arguments would change his mind. "It's curiouser and curiouser; I don't understand" why the reporters are asking for more time, Hogan said. "It seems to me the time has come. Much more delay and we will be at the end of the grand jury." Time magazine's lawyers had revealed Wednesday that the company was considering turning over the documents sought by the grand jury, a step that Cooper said he hoped the magazine did not take. Fitzgerald said that the documents are Cooper's notes of his interviews. "On balance, I think I'd prefer they not turn over the documents but Time can make that decision for itself," Cooper said outside the courthouse. Meanwhile, columnist Robert Novak, who was the first to identify CIA officer Valerie Plame in print, told CNN he "will reveal all" after the matter is resolved, adding that it is wrong for the government to jail journalists. Novak, who has not been held in contempt, has not commented on his involvement in the grand jury leak investigation. Cooper wrote a story subsequently about Plame. Miller did some reporting but did not write a story. Special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, the U.S. attorney in Chicago, has been investigating who in the Bush administration leaked Plame's identity days after her husband, former Ambassador Joe Wilson, publicly undercut the president's rationale for invading Iraq.
Theodore Boutrous, an attorney representing Time magazine, told the judge Wednesday, "We don't want to reargue this case." The magazine hopes to "avoid this crisis and journalists going to jail," Boutrous added. Robert Bennett, representing Miller, told the judge in asking for more time that "it's a big step to put two people in jail who have committed no crimes." After Hogan held Miller, Cooper and the magazine in contempt, an appeals court rejected their argument that the First Amendment shielded them from revealing their sources. It was that appeals court decision upheld Monday without comment by the Supreme Court.
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| Posted by:Steve |
| #2 Bzzzzt Matthew Cooper is married to Democrat spokeswoman Mandy Grunwald - what a tight little incestuous community, no? No bias here. Novak talked to the GJ |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-06-30 19:12 |
| #1 I don't get why two other journalists are on the hook for a story that Novak broke. Did the Grand Jury talk to him? |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2005-06-30 18:26 |