The Cost of Keeping Mum

摘要

Leak investigations in washington usually fizzle and die within days of being launched. But one leak probe, now in its 14th month, is rapidly approaching a showdown. Special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald has ordered two reporters, including TIME White House correspondent Matthew Cooper, to tell a grand jury who might have disclosed to them the identity of a covert CIA officer during a tangled political dustup in the summer of 2003. TIME sought to quash the subpoena through most of 2004, but last week a federal appeals court ruled that Cooper and Judith Miller of the New York Times must testify or face civil contempt penalties, which usually means jail. Both TIME and the New York Times will appeal the ruling, going all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary.