Note: This is long, and primarily for the terminally-addicted PlameGate followers among you.

There are two components to Judith Miller's explanation for her decision to testify before the grand jury. One is her claim that by speaking to Libby on the phone the other day, she satisfied herself the waiver was genuine. The other is that she got a promise from Fitzgerald that he would not question her about sources other than Libby or matters other than her conversations with Libby. These were enough for her to change her mind and both testify and turn over heavily redacted notes (link to article fixed)of her conversations with Libby about Valerie Plame.

We all know the waiver issue is a red herring. Another red herring is the speculation that she got a new lawyer, Bob Bennett, who gave her different advice than her old lawyer, Floyd Abrams. It was Bennett, not Abrams, who appeared in court with her and argued on her behalf in July when she was sent to jail. He could have asked Fitzgerald before that hearing whether she could talk to Libby about the waiver without it being considered obstruction of justice, if that was the concern.

That leaves us with her and Fitzgerald's agreement. By making it, did Fitzgerald give away the store and his chance of Indictments against anyone, except perhaps Libby? Or, is he now focused only on such a narrow issue that her other sources don't matter to him?

I was reading yesterday's AP Timeline of Judith Miller's role in the Plame investigation, and realized it omitted events of one of the most crucial time periods: July 6 - 14, 2003. July 6 was when Joseph Wilson's op-ed appeared in the New York Times discrediting the Administration's claim about Iraq buying yellowcake uranium from Niger. July 14 is when Novak's column appeared citing "two senior administration officials" as sources advising him that Joseph Wilson's wife was a CIA operative.

That's probably the most important time period Fitzgerald has been investigating. So, I've complied a new timeline, with links to the source documents, where available. Here's what I've got so far.

• July 6 - Records of White House Iraq Group for 7/6 - 7/30 subpoenaed by Fitzgerald.(Chicago Tribune, 3/5/04)

• July 7- Bloomberg reports on the State Department Memo prepared for Colin Powell and dated July 7, that includes Plame’s name in a paragraph marked “(S)'’ for `Secret.’ "The three-page document said that Wilson had been recommended for a CIA-sponsored trip to Africa by his wife, who worked on the CIA’s counter-proliferations desk."

• July 7 - Novak calls Ari Fleischer(no confirmation they spoke.)

• July 7 - Air Force One (with Colin and Ari on it)leaves for Africa; Ari's Press Gaggle. Ari observed perusing state department memo on flight.

• July 8 - Condi Rice briefing on Air Force One

• July 8 - Libby Meets with Miller

I haven't connected the dots in a while, but now reading that Cheney was in on the discussions about Wilson's article published the week before Novak's column, it's time for another go at it.

First up: The New York Times reports:

A lawyer who knows Mr. Libby's account said the administration efforts to limit the damage from Mr. Wilson's criticism extended as high as Mr. Cheney. This lawyer and others who spoke about the case asked that they not be identified because of grand jury secrecy rules.

On July 12, 2003, four days after his initial conversation with Ms. Miller, Mr. Libby consulted with Mr. Cheney about how to handle inquiries from journalists about the vice president's role in sending Mr. Wilson to Africa in early 2002 to investigate reports that Iraq was trying acquire nuclear material there for its weapons program, the person said. In that account, Mr. Cheney told Mr. Libby to direct reporters to a statement released the previous day by George J. Tenet, director of central intelligence. His statement said Mr. Wilson had been sent on the mission by C.I.A. counter-proliferation officers "on their own initiative."

Judith Miller appeared before the grand jury today - for four hours . I'm been offline (just stopped in here for a minute) but I see Digby's on fire again. [link fixed.] Read all the posts and Tom Maguire at Just One Minute and Anonymous Liberal too.

Arianna writes that the plot thickens and wants to know what Miller is hiding.

Update: ABC News is reporting Miller will testify before the grand jury tomorrow.

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Original Post:

Via Atrios, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports Judith Miller was released from jail today.

She was released after she had a telephone conversation with the Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby, sources said. In that conversation, Libby reaffirmed that he had released Miller from a promise of confidentiality more than a year ago, sources said.

Arianna says PlameGate may be inching closer to John Bolton.

According to two sources, Bolton's former chief of staff, Fred Fleitz, was at least one of the sources of the classified information about Valerie Plame that flowed through the Bush administration and eventually made its way into Bob Novak's now infamous column.

In a letter to House Intelligence Committee Chair Peter Hoekstra yesterday, the Justice Department balked at turning documents related to the Plame investigation over to Congress. It said that Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald advised that to do so would interfere with his criminal investigation, which "lawyers close to the investigation" (read, lawyers for those under investigation) expect to be concluded in the next few weeks.

As we reported here, yesterday the House Judiciary Committee and International Relations Committee, in party-line votes, rejected a Congressional Resolution of Inquiry into the leak of the identity of former covert operative Valerie Plame. As expected, the House Intelligence Committee today also rejected the Resolution of Inquiry, again on a party line vote. As Murray Waas says tonight,

Had the resolutions of inquiry been adopted, they would have lead to the first independent congressional inquiries of the Plame affair, and perhaps even the public testimony of senior Bush administration aides, such as Karl Rove, the White House deputy chief of staff, and I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, the chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, about their personal roles.

Murray Waas reports that the House Judiciary and International Relations Committees, on a party line vote, rejected resolutions of inquiry that would have commenced a Congressional inquiry into the leaking the identity of former CIA operative Valerie Plame.

Not too surprisingly, Republicans today beat back formal "resolutions of inquiry" by Democrats on the House Judiciary and House International Relations Committees that would have required the Bush administration to turn over to Congress information and records relating to the outing of CIA officer Valerie Plame....

Republicans argued that any vote in favor of the resolution might impair the ongoing federal grand jury probe by special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald. Democrats pointed out that Congress engaged in its own extensive formal investigations of Watergate and Whitewater while special prosecutors conducted criminal inquiries.

The House Intelligence Committee has scheduled a closed-session vote tomorrow. Murray says the outcome is expected to be the same.
AP article is here.

Arianna has an update on jailed New York Times journalist Judith Miller. Miller, according to Arianna's source, may be getting ready to talk. Miller may be seeking a "proper release" so she can talk without violating the journalistic principles she went to jail to uphold.

What's this all about? My take: Fitzgerald's grand jury is winding down. He's ready to charge Miller with criminal contempt which is a whole different ball of wax than the civil contempt charge on which she's now doing time. The newly sought waiver, I suspect, as does Arianna, is an excuse. Miller could have sought one before going to jail.

The reason the "proper release" doesn't wash is that Miller has said all along that she doesn't want to comply with the subpoena because once she complies, there's nothing to stop Fitzgerald from asking her about more sources, like he did with Matt Cooper, and then it never ends. But, a waiver from source A, "proper" or personal or unconditonal or whatever you want to call it, doesn't solve this problem. So, it seems like Ms. Miller is trying to make a deal to avoid more time and save as much journalistic face as she can.

Any way you look at it, it's crunch time for Judith Miller.

The Washington Post has an article today in which lawyers theorize about statutes Fitzgerald might use against Rove and company in the Valerie Plame leak.

While I agree that the federal statute prohibiting leaking a covert operative's identity may be a stretch in this case, I think the new statute bandied about in the article, embezzlement of public property, is an even greater stretch.

Fitzgerald seems to have plenty of choices with perjury, making a false statement to a federal official, obstruction of justice and conspiracy to obstruct justice. He may even have conspiracy to out a covert operative.

I doubt Fitzgerald is out searching for statutes to charge Administration officials using some novel theory. If he has the goods on the traditional ones, he'll indict. If he doesn't, he won't.

The L.A. Times today has a nine page analysis of the leak of the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame. If you need a picture chart, head over to Think Progress, which has a handy compilation of 21 Administration officials involved in the probe.

As to the outcome of the investigation, the Times merely concludes:

Individuals close to the case say that Fitzgerald is likely to wrap up his inquiry this fall.

There's an interesting article in today's Globe and Mail about Patrick Fitzgerald and his prosecutorial strategy. Here are the money quotes:

And always, he has methodically, inexorably pursued his investigations to target the man at the top of the organizational pyramid....People who have watched Mr. Fitzgerald operate in Chicago, and before that as assistant U.S. Attorney in New York City, are not surprised by his zeal in pursuing the journalists. But don't expect him to stop there.

That's how he operates: Apply maximum pressure to reluctant witnesses in order to build an air-tight case against the most senior member of a criminal conspiracy.

[hat tip Patriot Daily.] I wonder if he believes the top dog here is Libby, Rove or Cheney.