New York Times reporter summoned to testify again

WASHINGTON – New York Times reporter Judith Miller was summoned for a second appearance yesterday before a grand jury investigating the leak of a CIA operative’s identity after she found notes from a previously undisclosed conversation with a top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney.

In a memo to New York Times staff on Tuesday, Executive Editor Bill Keller said Miller would return to the grand jury to “supplement” her initial testimony after handing over to federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald notes from her June 23, 2003, conversation with Cheney’s chief of staff, Lewis “Scooter” Libby. That once-secret conversation could help Fitzgerald establish that the White House started targeting diplomat Joseph Wilson and possibly his wife, covert CIA operative Valerie Plame, in the weeks before Wilson publicly accused the Bush administration of twisting intelligence on Iraq.The New York Times reported that an entry in her notes referred to Wilson.President George W.Bush’s top political adviser, Karl Rove, has also been summoned to make another appearance – his fourth – before the grand jury later this week, and prosecutors have told him they cannot guarantee he will not be indicted.After 85 days in jail, Miller testified before the grand jury for the first time on Sept.30 about her two previously disclosed conversations with Libby – on July 8 and July 12, 2003.”For a couple more days she (Miller) remains under a contempt-of-court order, and is not yet clear of legal jeopardy,” Keller said.It is unclear how Fitzgerald first learned about the June 23, 2003, conversation.Legal sources close to Miller said she discovered the notes after she testified.According to a National Journal report, in two appearances before the federal grand jury, Libby did not disclose the June 23 conversation with Miller.Nor did Libby disclose the conversation when he was twice interviewed by FBI agents.Wilson asserts that administration officials outed his wife, damaging her ability to work undercover, to discredit him for criticising Bush’s Iraq policy in 2003 after Wilson made a CIA-funded trip to investigate whether Niger helped supply nuclear materials to Baghdad.- Nampa-ReutersThat once-secret conversation could help Fitzgerald establish that the White House started targeting diplomat Joseph Wilson and possibly his wife, covert CIA operative Valerie Plame, in the weeks before Wilson publicly accused the Bush administration of twisting intelligence on Iraq.The New York Times reported that an entry in her notes referred to Wilson.President George W.Bush’s top political adviser, Karl Rove, has also been summoned to make another appearance – his fourth – before the grand jury later this week, and prosecutors have told him they cannot guarantee he will not be indicted.After 85 days in jail, Miller testified before the grand jury for the first time on Sept.30 about her two previously disclosed conversations with Libby – on July 8 and July 12, 2003.”For a couple more days she (Miller) remains under a contempt-of-court order, and is not yet clear of legal jeopardy,” Keller said.It is unclear how Fitzgerald first learned about the June 23, 2003, conversation.Legal sources close to Miller said she discovered the notes after she testified.According to a National Journal report, in two appearances before the federal grand jury, Libby did not disclose the June 23 conversation with Miller.Nor did Libby disclose the conversation when he was twice interviewed by FBI agents.Wilson asserts that administration officials outed his wife, damaging her ability to work undercover, to discredit him for criticising Bush’s Iraq policy in 2003 after Wilson made a CIA-funded trip to investigate whether Niger helped supply nuclear materials to Baghdad. – Nampa-Reuters