http://reuters.myway.com/article/20050705/2005-07-05T200854Z_01_N05132438_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-MEDIA-LEAK-DC.htmlProsecutor jail for journalists in leak case
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Jul 5, 4:08 PM (ET)
A prosecutor on Tuesday urged a federal judge to jail two journalists who have refused to reveal...
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By James Vicini
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two journalists should be jailed for refusing to reveal their confidential sources to a grand jury investigating the leak of a covert CIA operative's name to the news media, a federal prosecutor said on Tuesday.
Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald urged Chief U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan to reject requests from New York Times correspondent Judith Miller and Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper for home detention instead of jail.
"Journalists are not entitled to promise confidentiality -- no one in America is," Fitzgerald, a U.S. Justice Department prosecutor, wrote in one of the court filings.
He said he would defer to the judge on whether the two journalists should be confined in the Washington, D.C., jail or in some other nearby federal detention facility.
The judge has scheduled a hearing on Wednesday to consider the punishment for Miller and Cooper for refusing to disclose their sources and comply with a subpoena requiring them to turn over documents and testify before the grand jury.
They have been found in contempt by Hogan and each could be jailed for up to 120 days, the remainder of the grand jury's term. The investigation seeks to determine who in the Bush administration leaked the name of CIA operative Valerie Plame in 2003.
Plame's husband, Joseph Wilson, a diplomat in the Clinton administration, has accused the White House of being responsible for the leak. He said officials did so because Wilson had publicly disputed a prewar claim by President Bush about Iraq's attempts to buy nuclear weapons parts.
Although Time magazine has handed over subpoenaed records, Fitzgerald said after reviewing the documents that Cooper's testimony was still necessary for his investigation.
Fitzgerald said "special treatment" for the journalists would "enable, rather than deter, defiance of the court's authority."
"Although confinement in a federal detention facility would separate Cooper from his family, special counsel reiterates that all Cooper need do to avoid this result is to follow the law as all American citizens are required to," he said.
Fitzgerald made a similar argument in the Miller case and said she would be jailed only for as long as she refuses to comply. "Miller could avoid even a minute of separation from her husband if she would do no more than just follow the law."
Fitzgerald said the judge should reject an alternative request by the journalists that they be sent to a specified federal prison camp instead of to a local jail.
Cooper's attorneys said in court documents that his refusal to testify was a matter of personal and professional ethics involving his desire to keep his obligation to protect the identity of his confidential sources.
Miller's attorneys made similar arguments.
They said she must have confidential access to high-level government sources to do her job. "Nothing less will do in a free society with an independent press."
