By: E & P Staff Judith Miller, the star New York Times reporter widely criticized for exaggerating the threat of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, was subpoenaed yesterday by a Washington grand jury investigating the disclosure of the identity of a C.I.A. undercover officer to the columnist Robert Novak and other journalists.
Lawyers for The Times said the paper expects it will be served a separate subpoena for its records. They said the paper would fight both subpoenas.
According to an article in the Times on Friday, Publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. said, "We regret that the special prosecutor has chosen to issue a subpoena that seeks to compel Judy Miller to reveal her confidential sources. Journalists should not have to face the prospect of imprisonment for doing nothing more than aggressively seeking to report on the government's actions. Such subpoenas make it less likely that sources will be willing to talk candidly with reporters and ultimately it is the public that suffers."
The subpoena to Miller was only the most recent of thoser issued to journalists at the behest of Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the special prosecutor heading the probe.
On Monday, a federal district judge in Washington held Time magazine and reporter Matthew Cooper in contempt for refusing to identify their sources in the same case, which involves the leaking of the name of Valerie Plame, intelligence operative and wife of former Ambassador Joseph Wilson.
The judge, Thomas F. Hogan, will also hear The Times' motion to quash. This week he ordered Cooper jailed until the sources were named but suspended the action pending an appeal.
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