A New York Timesreporter has testified about a previously undisclosed conversation with a top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney to a federal grand jury investigating the leak of a CIA operative's identity
Judith Miller
In her second appearance before the grand jury, Timesreporter Judith Miller was questioned for more than an hour after turning over notes detailing her June 23rd, 2003, conversation with Mr Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis Libby.
An entry in her notes referred to Joseph Wilson, covert CIA operative Valerie Plame's diplomat husband.
Hours after Ms Miller completed her testimony, a federal judge lifted the contempt-of-court order that had sent her to jail for 85 days for refusing to reveal her source, the Timessaid.
Ms Miller's testimony about the June 2003 conversation could help federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald establish whether the White House started targeting Mr Wilson and possibly his wife in the weeks before Mr Wilson publicly accused the Bush administration of twisting intelligence on Iraq.
During that period, reports had surfaced of a CIA-funded trip Mr Wilson took in which he investigated administration charges that Iraq tried to buy nuclear materials in Africa and found the allegations had little foundation.
Mr Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove, has been summoned to make a fourth appearance before the grand jury, most likely tomorrow, and prosecutors have told him they can make no guarantees he will not be indicted.
Judge Thomas Hogan's decision to lift the contempt order
on Ms Miller appears to clear the way for
her to provide details about her testimony to the Times, which has come under fire for withholding information about Ms Miller's role in the case.