Patrick Fitzgerald, the special counsel investigating the revenge outing by senior White House officials of CIA operative Valerie Plame, appears to have taken (Editor & Publisher) a personal interest in New York Times reporter Judith Miller, one of two reporters facing jail time under a contempt citation for refusing to reveal their White House sources for stories on Plame, whose name and occupation were leaked by White House officials in an attempt to discredit her husband, former ambassador Joe Wilson, after he publicly disputed the president’s 2003 State of the Union speech claim that Iraq had tried to purchase uranium from Niger.

Miller, who enjoys close relationships with several senior Bush administration officials and proved herself an endlessly faithful transmitter of administration misinformation through her reporting in the year prior to the invasion, researched but never wrote a story on the subject. In an interesting aside on the case, the Washington Post writes that “some reporters may have told government officials — not the other way around — that Wilson was married to Plame, a CIA employee.”

The second reporter, Time Magazine’s Matt Cooper, agreed today to testify after his source released Cooper from their confidentiality agreement.

In a written response yesterday to Miller’s statement that she would never reveal her sources and her request that she be allowed to serve her indefinite contempt term under house arrest, Fitzgerald said he thought an extended period of contemplation might well change her thinking on the situation.

“Special Counsel appreciates that Miller is also someone who thinks deeply. She is an investigative journalist who has won a Pulitzer Prize and authored several books, including one titled ‘God Has Ninety Nine Names’ that contains a chapter singularly insightful as to the history and orientation of Egyptian terrorist groups. Neither Special Counsel, nor this Court, should lightly conclude that Miller will spend months in jail without thinking more deeply about the issues discussed above and, in particular, thinking about whether the interests of journalism at large and, even more broadly, the proper conduct of government, are truly served by her continued refuals to obey this Court’s order to testify in an investigation in which she is an eyewitness and her putative source has been identified and has waived confidentiality….

“Miller’s views may change over time, especially if what is viewed as her ‘irresponsible martyrdom’ obstructing an important grand jury investigation is seen to undercut, not enhance, the credibility of the press and, with it, any case to be made for a federal reporter’s shield law.”

Whatever one might think of Fitzgerald’s pursuit of Miller and Cooper, quoting Miller’s own reference to “irresponsible martyrdom” has to be recognized as an inspired bit of prosecutorial and personal savagery.

Fitzgerald also made note and use of Miller’s reference to her reporting from Iraq — she told the judge that letters from the soldiers with whom she was embedded during her fantastical pursuit of banned weapons in the months after the invasion would confirm her resolve never to reveal her sources — in his successful rebutal of her suggestion that if her contempt citation went forward, she be allowed to serve the term under house arrest. Again from Editor & Publisher:

… Fitzgerald wrote, “Certainly one who can handle the desert in wartime, is far better equipped than the average person jailed in a federal facility.” Miller, of course, covered (some say, mis-covered) the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq following the U.S. invasion.

Fitzgerald mocked Miller’s claim that being denied cell phone and e-mail privileges would be adequate punishment: “Forced vacation at a comfortable home is not a compelling form of coercion.”

Miller was ordered to jail immediately upon the rejection of her arguments. She was removed from the Iraq beat after questions arose about her reporting, and has since been reporting rumors about the United Nations. She now has her own web site, which has not yet been updated to cover her arrest.

Press interest in the case, already elevated by the First Amendment invocations of Cooper and Miller — several other reporters testified to the grand jury under various agreements — increased when senior White House advisor and rhetorical thug Karl Rove was named as one of Cooper’s sources.

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UPDATE: Miller’s site now displays a brief Editor & Publisher item on her arrest.

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