Latest Twists in Miller/Cooper Case--In Court and In Congress

By: Time magazine and New York Times reporters, held in contempt for refusing to name sources, tried Friday to stay out of jail by arguing for home detention instead after Time Inc. surrendered its reporter's notes to a prosecutor.

Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., said Friday that several unidentified Senate Republicans had placed a hold on a proposed resolution declaring support for Miller and Cooper.

``Cowards!'' Lautenberg said of the Republicans. ``Under the rules, they have a right to refuse to reveal who they are. Sound familiar?''

Lautenberg's resolution is co-sponsored by Sens. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., and Christopher Dodd, D-Conn. It says that no purpose is served by imprisoning Miller and Cooper and that the First Amendment of the Constitution guarantees freedom of the press.

[In another development, senior MSNBC political analyst Lawrence O'Donnell said Friday night on the TV talk show The McLaughlin Group that he had learned that the Cooper documents reveal White House aide Karl Rove as the source.]

In court Friday, lawyers argued that Time Inc. producing the documents makes it unnecessary for Time reporter Matthew Cooper to testify to the federal grand jury investigating the leak of a CIA officer's identity.

``The decision of Time Inc. to comply with the special counsel's demand should obviate the need to enforce the subpoena served on Mr. Cooper and the contempt citation against him,'' the court papers stated. ``Mr. Cooper submits that his testimony would be duplicative and unnecessary.''

New York Times reporter Judith Miller will never reveal her sources and depriving her of her freedom ``offers absolutely no realistic likelihood'' that she will tell the prosecutor what she knows, her attorneys wrote.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan found the two reporters and Time Inc. in contempt for refusing to cooperate in the investigation of who in the Bush administration disclosed the identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame.

Cooper, who wrote a subsequent story naming Plame, and Miller, who gathered material but never wrote an article, could be ordered to jail at the conclusion of a hearing before Hogan next Wednesday.

Time turned over the documents four days after the Supreme Court refused to consider the case.

If Hogan refuses to lift his civil contempt order, a term of home detention is appropriate for Cooper and Miller, the court papers stated. In the alternative, Cooper should be sent to the Federal Prison Camp in Cumberland, Md., and Miller to the Federal Prison Camp for women at Danbury, Conn., lawyers for each said.

Home detention would restrict Cooper's activities ``without unduly punishing'' his wife and very young son, his lawyers said.

Nine members of the Army with whom Miller spent time when she was covering the war in Iraq submitted letters on her behalf, saying that she is someone who keeps her word and would never reveal secrets or her confidential sources under any circumstances.

One of the letters was from Lt. Gen. David Petraeus, who is in command of training Iraqi security forces.

Thirty-one states and the District of Columbia have shield laws protecting reporters from having to identify their confidential sources. Legislation to establish such protection under federal law has been introduced in Congress.