Isikoff: Fitz planned on impaneling new GJ if Miller wouldn't talk

[Rose Siding]

Oct. 10, 2005 issue - New York Times reporter Judy Miller broke her silence and agreed to testify before a federal grand jury last week. This followed tense, often acrimonious negotiations that began after special Justice Department prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald signaled he intended to reimpanel a new grand jury—a move that could have kept Miller in jail for another year and a half, say two lawyers close to the case who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the talks. A federal judge sent Miller to jail on July 8 for refusing to talk about her conversations with her source, who, it was disclosed last week, was Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis (Scooter) Libby. Fitzgerald indicated he would not let the matter drop when the grand jury, investigating the leak of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame's identity, expires in late October. Instead, he would keep his long-running probe open with a new grand jury. The sobering prospect spurred fevered negotiations among lawyers to find conditions that would satisfy both Miller and Fitzgerald.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9558011/site/newsweek/

[Humor_In_Cuneiform]

1. So that's what got them moving

Very interesting.

[janx]

2. Day-um!

This guy sounds very determined, to say the least!

[oldtime dfl_er]

3. Every time I read something like this I have new hope

Fitzgerald seems serious. I pray he doesn't end up giving us nothing. I've been so beaten down and defeated by the dirty filthy tactics of the neocon right that I no longer even hold out much hope for justice and good triumphing. I hope I'm not crushed anew if Fitzgerald's investigation comes to little or nothing.



http://www.cafepress.com/scarebaby/658010

[despairing optimist]

4. It's a prosecutor's choice, to keep empaneling new grand juries

And each time Judy Miller would have been subpoenaed, if she had refused to cooperate she would have had to be incarcerated. This could have gone on for as long as Fitzgerald or his successor, if any, remained interested in Miller's testimony.

[KoKo]

5. Isikoff reveals that Libby did not talk to Novak ....so

who were Novak's two sources?

Quote from article:

Tate acknowledges that Libby did indeed tell Miller that Iraq war critic Joe Wilson's wife (Plame) had arranged for Wilson to take a CIA-sponsored trip to Africa to probe reports that Iraq was seeking uranium for a nuclear bomb. But he says Libby did not know Plame's real name nor her undercover status at the CIA. Nor, he says, did Libby talk to Robert Novak, the columnist whose story outing Plame prompted the criminal probe in the first place.

[janx]

6. I've been wondering if this case involves not just the outing

of Plame, but the Bush administration's relationship with the media.
?

[hang a left]

7. It would seem that PF had Miller over a barrel....

Why would he then agree to limit the scope of his questioning her? There have been so many little leaks since Friday. I am wondering how true the story is about Miller's testimony being limited.

[janx]

9. He may know more--through other sources/venues--than we

can imagine at this point.

[Rose Siding]

10. One theory is that he only needed to know one thing from her-

That she wasn't THE source of information about Plame.

At one point, Rove said he'd learned her ID from a reporter. The prosecutor needed to get the reporters under oath, saying they hadn't passed any info to the WH, thereby eliminating that kind of defense.

[sendero]

8. As usual..

... the simplest and most obvious explanation seems to be the correct one.

[dicknbush]

11. I.m thinking we might see un-indicted co-conspirators for Bush and Cheney?

That would be fun to watch them spin. Rove must be pouring over Fitzgdralds CV and trying to spin what an absolute nut case he is. I'm sure the talking points are poised by the fax ready to go to the Right winged blow hards on the tv and radio. THis is going to be a fun week if it comes down this week

[gratuitous]

12. And after her employer editorialized that she'd never talk

Gosh, I'll bet her editors feel so used and dirty, huh?

[emulatorloo]

13. "Fitzgerald, who is expected to wrap up his probe soon, had no comment."

So there you have it.

No leaks, no comment.

And wrapping up soon. . . .