NY Times writer faces grand jury

NEW York Times reporter Judith Miller testified before a grand jury yesterday, ending her silence in the investigation into whether White House officials leaked the name of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame.

Ms Miller, free after 85 days in jail, spent more than three hours inside the federal courthouse in Washington, most behind closed doors with a grand jury.

She arrived early in the morning at the courthouse under an agreement reached Thursday with Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald to disclose her July 2003 conversations with US Vice-President DickCheney’s chief of staff, Lewis “Scooter” Libby.

Ms Miller said in a statement that her source - identified by the Times as Mr Libby - had released her from her promise of confidentiality.

But Mr Libby’s lawyer said he and his client had released Ms Miller long ago to testify, and were surprised when her lawyers again asked for a release in the last few weeks. “We had signed a waiver more than a year ago,” Attorney Joseph Tate said. “We didn’t think this had anything to do with Scooter.”

Mr Tate said Ms Miller’s lawyers called recently and said there was “a misunderstanding and Judy wanted to hear it straight from the horse’s mouth” that Libby was releasing her to talk to the grand jury about their conversation.