Feds subpoena Tim Russert, Time reporter

May 23, 2004 | Tim Russert from NBC and a journalist from Time Inc. have received federal subpoenas to face questioning about the alleged leak of an undercover CIA weapons expert's identity, but both news organizations said Sunday they would fight the subpoenas.

The companies said the subpoenas came from a special grand jury investigating whether the Bush administration improperly disclosed the identity of the agent, Valerie Plame, after her husband, former diplomat Joseph Wilson, publicly challenged the White House's claim that Iraq had been trying to obtain uranium for nuclear weapons from Africa.

Wilson has charged that officials made the disclosure in an effort to discredit him.

Plame was first identified as a CIA specialist on weapons of mass destruction by syndicated columnist and TV commentator Robert Novak last July. Novak said his information came from administration sources, but has declined to name them.

NBC and Time said the subpoenas were aimed at Russert, the "Meet the Press" host and moderator, and Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper, both of whom have reported on the Plame controversy.

Novak's office has declined repeatedly to say whether he has been subpoenaed or cooperated with investigators.

NBC News president Neal Shapiro said the Russert subpoena was misdirected because he was "not the recipient of the leak." The subpoena, he said, would have a "potential chilling effect" on the network's ability to report the news.

"The American public will be deprived of important information if the government can freely question journalists about their efforts to gather news," Shapiro said in a statement. "Sources will simply stop speaking to the press if they fear those conversations will become public."

Robin Bierstedt, a Time Inc. vice president and deputy general counsel, said the Time subpoena referred to two articles by Cooper and others, one on the Time.com Web site on July 17, 2003, and the other in the magazine's June 21, 2003 issue.

Time planned to file a motion next month asking that the subpoena be quashed, she said.

"It is Time Inc.'s policy to protect its confidential sources," she said. "While we would like all of our reporting to be on the record, a promise of confidentiality is sometimes necessary to get information that would otherwise be unavailable."

Patrick J. Sullivan, a special counsel in the grand jury inquiry, has repeatedly declined to comment on the case.

Justice Department guidelines for criminal prosecutions state that all avenues should be explored before reporters are subpoenaed or approached in an investigation. The issuing of new subpoenas for reporters may indicate that the investigation is nearing an end.

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