LA-Times Article: "A Prosecutor Who Didn't Back Down"

[G_j]

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-na-fitzgerald8jul08,0,1244179.story?coll=la-home-headlines

THE NATION
A Prosecutor Who Didn't Back Down

Patrick J. Fitzgerald pushed for the jailing of two reporters who refused to testify. Legal observers disagree on whether he was right.

By Stephen Braun, Times Staff Writer

WASHINGTON — Special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald lived up to his billing as a hard-nosed U.S. attorney when he pressed for the jailing of a reporter who refused to testify in his investigation into the leak of a CIA agent's name. But his action just as likely was spurred by the unique fact-finding mission given special prosecutors, legal observers and those who have worked with Fitzgerald in the past said Thursday.

The imprisonment Wednesday of New York Times reporter Judith Miller for failing to testify before a grand jury served to aid Fitzgerald's probe, several lawyers said.

It showed the targets of his inquiry that he meant business. A second reporter, Time magazine's Matthew Cooper, agreed to testify after also being threatened with jail. Cooper said he had been prepared to go to jail but that his source called him at the last minute to release him from his confidentiality pledge.

Even if Fitzgerald's investigation fails to produce any indictments, said Andrew C. McCarthy, a former prosecutor who is a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. Fitzgerald, he said, "has to show he investigated the case in a fair and comprehensive manner." So Fitzgerald's move against Miller and Cooper allows him to show that he took all available measures to get at the truth.

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[Media_Lies_Daily]

1. If any "legal observers" believe he is wrong, they evidently don't....

...include the judges involved in hearing this case. They also don't include anyone familiar with the ruling in the 1972 Supreme Court case of BRANZBURG v. HAYES, 408 U.S. 665, and/or understanding of the US Code under TITLE 50, CHAPTER 15, SUBCHAPTER IV, § 421. Protection of identities of certain United States undercover intelligence officers, agents, informants, and sources.

[KittyWampus]

2. Thanks For Continually Posting This Info. Much Appreciated

[jrthin]

3. I second that *thank you*. nt