If Libby did not know that Plame was undercover, does he get off scot-free?

Not necessarily, because the prosecutor may be considering other possible violations.

One theory is that Fitzgerald is looking to charge someone in the Bush administration with breaking espionage law. Espionage law prohibits government officials or private citizens who hold security clearances from delivering classified information to people who do not hold security clearances. It has been previously reported that Libby and other Bush administration officials may have first learned of Wilson's trip from a top-secret State Department memo that had been floating around the White House that summer; the memo identified Wilson's wife in a paragraph marked "snf," meaning "Secret No Foreign," which specified that the information was secret and not to be shared with foreigners.

In other words, even if Libby didn't know that Valerie Plame was undercover, her identity, according to that memo, was top-secret information; Libby may have been breaking espionage law, then, by disclosing Plame's identity to a reporter.

Miller's account suggests that Fitzgerald is looking into this possibility. Fitzgerald asked Miller if she was cleared to receive classified information; she said that although she had once been granted such clearances -- when she reported on the hunt for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq -- she was not sure if she still did. Now, the fact that she even had such a security clearance appears rather bizarre and may prove to be of great consequence. Bill Lynch, a veteran CBS correspondent, wrote in to Jim Romenesko's media news site and called Miller's security clearance "as close as one can get to government licensing of journalists and the New York Times (if it knew) should never have allowed her to become so compromised." And Ivo Daalder, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a former Clinton National Security Council staffer, pointed out here that "one of the most important obligations of a person receiving security clearances is not to reveal that information at any time, while one of the most important obligations of a reporter is precisely to reveal information the public has a need and right to know." He also wondered if this would be the key to Libby's avoiding any indictment.

If Miller does not enjoy such clearances, however, Libby may well have been breaking the law by discussing Plame with her.

So is that it? Is there more wrong that Libby may have done?

Oh yes. Observers have long suspected that Fitzgerald is also working on an obstruction of justice charge in this case -- meaning that he's looking to charge people who lied to investigators or in any other way attempted to block the inquiry.

Miller's account of her dealings with Libby suggests some basis for believing Libby may have been attempting to obstruct the investigation. For instance, Miller's lawyers say that when they first asked Libby's attorneys to release Miller from the confidentiality agreement she'd made with him, they said yes, but added that Libby had already testified that he had not disclosed Plame's identity to Miller. When Miller's attorneys refused to promise that she would exonerate Libby if she testified, Libby's side would say, "Don't go there, or, we don't want you there," according to Miller. This caused Miller to decide "not to testify in part because she thought that Mr. Libby's lawyer might be signaling to keep her quiet unless she would exonerate his client."

In a letter he sent to Miller releasing her from the confidentiality agreement, Libby wrote: "The public report of every other reporter's testimony makes clear that they did not discuss Ms. Plame's name or identity with me." Miller told Fitzgerald that she interpreted this passage as an attempt to influence her testimony: She wrote that the letter "might be perceived as an effort by Mr. Libby to suggest that I, too, would say we had not discussed Ms. Plame's identity. Yet my notes suggested that we had discussed her job."

OK, so that's what's damaging to Libby in this account. What do these articles say about Judy Miller?

Well, first, to the relief of many at the New York Times, these accounts exonerate Miller of the most fevered speculation about her role in this case -- the idea that she was the original source of Plame's name, and that she'd passed that information on to the administration through Libby.

According to Miller, the prosecutor told the grand jury that she was only a witness -- and not a subject or target -- of the inquiry; this suggests that he isn't looking to prosecute Miller for violating any law.

Beyond that, though, Miller's actions in this case look quite unsavory.

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