Reply #9: Her agreement to testify suggests that Fitzgerald is winding up

[seemslikeadream]

The grand jury's term ends Oct. 28



http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=aylpO0HhUh9Y&refer=top_world_news

Her agreement to testify suggests that special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is winding up his investigation into whether someone in President George W. Bush's administration revealed the name of Central Intelligence Agency operative Valerie Plame to reporters in July 2003.

...

Bernard Grimm, a Washington criminal defense lawyer, said Fitzgerald would not have gone to the ``extraordinary lengths'' of jailing Miller unless he was pursuing a serious criminal investigation.

``There obviously has to be something larger going on for him to take this kind of action,'' Grimm said. ``When you lock up a reporter, you're essentially locking up the First Amendment, and no prosecutor is going to do that in any kind of casual way.''

Fitzgerald said in court papers in June that the probe is mostly complete except for an interview of Miller and Time's Matthew Cooper. Cooper testified in July; the grand jury's term ends Oct. 28.


...

`Intense Negotiations'

The newspaper said on its Web site that Miller's lawyers had ``intense negotiations'' with Libby's lawyer, Joseph Tate, that were ``sometimes strained.''

Robert Bennett, Miller's lawyer, said that Libby made contact with her on Sept. 19 and authorized ``her to go forward.''

``This was the first time that there was this personal communication,'' Bennett said today on CNN. He said Miller didn't attempt to make contact with her source for permission to testify because such an approach may have looked like an attempt at ``coercion.''