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WHY JUDITH MILLER? Byron York at NRO yesterday observed that the testimony, on Monday, of a number of journalists that they did not receive a leak from Scooter Libby about Valerie Plame
There are very simple answers to these questions that go to the heart of Fitzgerald's theory of the case; one of the things evidently keeping York and others from seeing those answers is the assumption that any conspiracy or coordinated effort must be vast or great. Instead, on Fitzgerald's evident theory, there was a rather narrow, coordinated effort by just Libby and Cheney aimed at disclosing sensitive (in fact classified) information about Plame to one reporter in particular -- Judith Miller of the New York Times. Fitzgerald brought out how important Libby's meeting with Miller on July 8 2003 must have been to Libby when, in his cross-examination of Cheney loyalist John Hannah yesterday, he got Hannah to admit that during the extremely busy and high-intensity week of July 6-13, if Libby devoted an hour of his time to an individual, it must have been for a quite significant matter. Libby devoted more than an hour to his interview with Miller on July 8 -- and what's more he went out of his way to meet her at a hotel restaurant rather than just doing it in the offices of the vice president.raised questions about one of the fundamental theories underlying the CIA-leak case. If Libby's disclosure of Mrs. Wilson's identity to Judith Miller and Matthew Cooper was part of a White House conspiracy to out Joseph Wilson's wife, why didn't Libby take the opportunities he had to out her to Woodward, Novak, Pincus, et al? Did Cheney, who is portrayed in some scenarios as the mastermind of the leak, tell Libby to disclose Mrs. Wilson's identity to Matt Cooper and not to Bob Woodward? To Judith Miller and not to Robert Novak?
