Prosecutor Wants Reporter to Testify
WASHINGTON — A special prosecutor said Tuesday that a Time magazine reporter had to submit to questioning or face jail in connection with an investigation into the outing of a CIA operative, despite a decision last week by the magazine's corporate parent to cooperate in the probe.
Setting the stage for a hearing today, federal prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald said in court papers that he needed the testimony of Matthew Cooper, even though Time Inc., Cooper's employer, had turned over e-mails and notes about his sources.
Fitzgerald also urged a federal judge to reject bids by Cooper and New York Times reporter Judith Miller to be permitted to be detained at home, instead of jail, for refusing to cooperate in the nearly two-year case.
The journalists' fate, and one of the most dramatic showdowns between the government and the press in years, is to be decided today before U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan.
Hogan held the reporters and Time in civil contempt last fall for refusing to cooperate in Fitzgerald's investigation. The Supreme Court upheld his ruling last week. Hogan has demanded to know the identities of the sources the journalists spoke with in researching or reporting on the matter.
On Friday, in a move that drew fire from media groups, Time turned over documents demanded by Fitzgerald that it said shed light on the sources Cooper had used.
The publishing concern said the action was designed to address its own contempt order, and hopefully to avert the possibility that its reporter might end up in jail.
But Fitzgerald said the action did not go far enough. "After viewing the documents provided by Time Inc., Cooper's testimony remains necessary for the special counsel's investigation," Fitzgerald wrote Tuesday. The prosecutor did not elaborate.
The reporters could be off to jail soon. Hogan indicated at a hearing last week that he intended to imprison Cooper and Miller if they continued to defy him.
The judge, who also threatened to fine Time, is to decide at the hearing whether the publishing concern should be penalized despite its cooperation.
In a sharply worded filing Tuesday -- including criticism of the reporters by other journalists -- Fitzgerald upped the stakes, suggesting that Cooper and Miller be held in criminal contempt if they continued to ignore the court orders.
Both face four months in jail for civil contempt; a separate finding of criminal contempt could add months to their confinement.
