Monday, July 11, 2005

NYT: "For Time Reporter, Decision to Testify Came After Frenzied Last-Minute Calls"

"A short time ago," Mr. Cooper said, "in somewhat dramatic fashion, I received an express personal release from my source."
But the facts appear more complicated than they seemed in court. Mr. Cooper, it turns out, never spoke to his confidential source that day, said Robert D. Luskin, a lawyer for the source, who is now known to be Karl Rove, the senior White House political adviser.

[. . .]
While Ms. Miller had consistently refused to testify, Mr. Cooper had already given testimony once in the investigation, in August 2004, describing conversations he had had with I. Lewis Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff.
[. . .]
Later, Mr. Waldman asked whether Time's disclosures and a blanket waiver form his source had signed were enough to allow him to testify. In an e-mail message on Tuesday night, Mr. Cooper said he believed the forms could have been coerced and thus worthless.

The above is from Adam Liptak's "For Time Reporter, Decision to Testify Came After Frenzied Last-Minute Calls" in this morning's New York Times. (Full credit for article reads "This article was reported by David Johnston, Jacques Steinberg and Adam Liptak and was written by Mr. Liptak.")

Yes, we're "on the Miller thing again" as one visitor e-mailed to complain regarding an entry Saturday. (And we've got a second post on the topic as well that will go up this morning as well.)

But again, let's note from the article above, a point we went over Wednesday because some people appear to be confused about this: "Ms. Miller had consistently refused to testify." Her source are sources may or may not be the same as Cooper's. Her refusal to testify has led to speculation that she has another source or sources. That may be, that may not be. But unless someone has insider information, it's speculation and it's not based on the public record or on the position that Miller has taken. Her position has been you do not name your source/s.

Last thing from the article:


The widely divergent outcomes of Mr. Cooper's case and Ms. Miller's case reflected an evolving split in their legal strategies. At first the two reporters shared a legal team, led by Floyd Abrams, a noted First Amendment lawyer.
But after a federal appeals court refused to block Mr. Fitzgerald's subpoenas, Time and Mr. Cooper replaced Mr. Abrams with a team led by Theodore B. Olson, a former United States solicitor general in the Bush administration who is now with Gibson Dunn & Crutcher.


The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.