September 29, 2005: New York Times Reporter Agrees to Testify in Plame Wilson Grand Jury Hearings, Is Released from Jail

New York Times reporter Judith Miller is released from jail after agreeing to comply with a subpoena from the grand jury investigating the Valerie Plame Wilson identity leak (see July 6, 2005). According to Miller, the person who told her of Plame Wilson’s covert identity, former vice-presidential chief of staff Lewis “Scooter” Libby, “voluntarily and personally released me from my promise of confidentiality” (see September 15, 2005 and October 28, 2005). [Washington Post, 7/3/2007] Libby’s lawyer Joseph Tate says that his client released Miller from her confidentiality agreement over a year ago, and that he was surprised to learn that Miller and her lawyer, Robert Bennett, did not know that she was free to testify. “We told her lawyers it [Libby’s original waiver] was not coerced,” Tate says. “We are surprised to learn we had anything to do with her incarceration” (see September 12, 2005). [Washington Post, 9/30/2009] Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger says: “Judy has been unwavering in her commitment to protect the confidentiality of her source. We are very pleased that she has finally received a direct and uncoerced waiver, both by phone and in writing, releasing her from any claim of confidentiality and enabling her to testify.” Miller adds: “I went to jail to preserve the time-honored principle that a journalist must respect a promise not to reveal the identity of a confidential source. I chose to take the consequences—85 days in prison—rather than violate that promise. The principle was more important to uphold than my personal freedom.” [New York Times, 9/29/2005] In preparation for her upcoming testimony (see September 30, 2005), Sulzberger and Times executive editor Bill Keller take Miller from jail to have a massage, a manicure, a martini, and a steak dinner before she goes home to sleep in her own bed. [New York Times, 10/16/2005]