PLAME UPDATE….Adam Liptak has a story in the New York Times tonight about all the reporters who have been subpoenaed to testify in the Valerie Plame case. Most of the story is only moderately interesting, but it does confirm that no one knows what’s going on with the reporter at the very center of the case: Robert Novak.
The real mystery in the investigation, lawyers involved in it say, is what Mr. Novak has done. Mr. Novak’s lawyer, James Hamilton, declined to comment. There are four essential possibilities.
Mr. Novak may not have been subpoenaed, which would be curious. He may have asserted the reporter’s privilege, but there is no reason to think that Judge Hogan would have ruled in his favor.
He may have asserted his rights under the Fifth Amendment. But Mr. Novak faces no real peril under the 1982 law, and Mr. Fitzgerald could in any event require him to testify by offering him immunity. Or Mr. Novak may have testified.
It’s peculiar that we know all about the subpoenas issued to Walter Pincus and Matt Cooper and Judith Miller and several others, but apparently not one single reporter has any idea what’s going on with Novak. You’d think one of these guys could find an anonymous source somewhere willing to tell them….
