'N.Y. Times' Scooped Again, This Time on Miller's Notes

'N.Y. Times' Scooped Again, This Time on Miller's Notes

By E&P Staff

Published: October 08, 2005 10:35 AM ET updated 11:00 PM

NEW YORK As the Plame/CIA leak case continues to unfold, The New York Times is maintaining its recent track record of getting scooped by others--many others--on critical developments in the legal twists and turns involving its own reporter, Judith Miller.

Last week, the paper was late in revealing that Miller had left jail. Thursday it was behind the curve in disclosing that the federal prosecutor in the Plame case had scheduled another meeting with Miller next week. And Friday, it was scooped by, first, the New York Observer (a weekly) and then Reuters, in reporting the rather significant news that Miller had somehow discovered notes of a conversation with I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby that took place about two weeks before the discussions that were the focus of her testimony to the grand jury last week. This was significant enough, Reuters reports, that the newly-found notes could help form the basis for a wide-ranging conspiracy charge.

When the Times did get around to covering this latest development, it provided few details, such as how, why and when the discovery took place, or why the newspaper has been so slow to cover its own employee. This was the extent of its report on this fresh angle:

"The meeting [on Tuesday] is expected to focus on newly discovered notes compiled by Ms. Miller that refer to a conversation she had with Mr. Libby on June 25, 2003, according to a lawyer in the case who did not want to be named because Mr. Fitzgerald has cautioned against discussing the case. Until now, the only conversations known to have occurred between Ms. Miller and Mr. Libby were on July 8 and 12, 2003."

The June chat with Libby pre-dates Joseph Wilson's July 6 op-ed in the Times which accused the White House of twisting intelligence on Iraq, and was thought to spur the administration backlash.

Late Saturday, Newsweek's Mike Isikoff reported on the magazine's Web site an interesting detail missing in the Times' account: the Miller notes apparently had been found in a notebook in the paper's Washington bureau.

Earlier, on Friday, David Johnston wrote in the Times that federal prosecutor Fitzgerald "has indicated that he is not entirely finished with Judith Miller, the New York Times reporter who recently testified before the grand jury after serving 85 days in jail. According to a lawyer familiar with the case, Mr. Fitzgerald has asked Ms. Miller to meet him next Tuesday to further discuss her conversations" with Libby.

After that Fitzgerald will have to decide whether to summon Miller for further testimony before the grand jury.

Apparently, the discovery of these notes will slow the Times' promised full accounting of Miller's role in this drama.

Bill Keller, the executive editor of The Times, told Johnston that Miller had been cautioned by her lawyers not to discuss the substance of her grand jury testimony until the prosecutor finished questioning her.

"We have launched a vigorous reporting effort that I hope will answer outstanding questions about Judy's part in this drama," Keller said. "This development may slow things down a little, but we owe our readers as full a story as we can tell, as soon as we can tell it."

A Times spokeswoman told E&P on Friday, "The timing is still yet to be determined."

A Washington Post report on Friday hinted that there's a chance that Miller's testimony last week may have added to Rove's vulnerability. It suggested that only three people have testified since Rove's last appearance: Matthew Cooper, Miller, and Rove's secretary.

Johnston of the Times, meanwhile, observed that in recent days, "Rove has been less visible than usual at the White House, fueling speculation that he is distancing himself from Mr. Bush or has been sidelined. But according to a senior administration official, Mr. Rove and his wife are on a long-planned college visiting trip with their teenage son. Several lawyers who have been involved in the case expressed surprise and concern over the recent turn of events and are increasingly convinced that Mr. Fitzgerald could be poised to charge someone with a crime for discussing with journalists the identity of an undercover C.I.A. officer."

And Johnston observed, "Recently lawyers said that they believed the prosecutor may be applying new legal theories to bring charges in the case.

"One new approach appears to involve the possible use of Chapter 37 of the federal espionage and censorship law, which makes it a crime for anyone who 'willfully communicates, delivers, transfers or causes to be communicated' to someone 'not entitled to receive it' classified information relating the national defense matters."

NOTE: Go to current column by E&P's Greg Mitchell on Miller, Libby, Jon Stewart, and the infamous "aspens turning" letter, found on our main page, right side, under Columns.

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E&P Staff (letters@editorandpublisher.com )