According to next month's Washingtonian, the addition of Robert Bennett to Miller's defense camp could spell P-A-R-D-O-N. More below.
Legal insiders were buzzing when New York Times reporter Judith Miller sent noted First Amendment specialist Floyd Abrams to the sidelines in favor of veteran DC defense lawyer Robert S. Bennett.
Several factors played into this decision by the Times. First, Bennett has a longstanding relationship with US District Judge Thomas Hogan, who sent Miller to an Alexandria jail for not revealing what she knows about the unmasking of CIA agent Valerie Plame.
The switch also may signal a realization on the part of the Times that having lost in the US Supreme Court, there might be only one other way out for Miller, who has said she will never give up her notes or reveal her sources for a story that she was reporting but that was never printed.
One solution could be a presidential pardon, something Bennett is an expert at. In late 1992, he won a pardon for Reagan-era Defense secretary Caspar Weinberger, indicted by special counsel Lawrence Walsh for lying to Congress about Iran-Contra. Hogan oversaw that case.
Bennett was praised for orchestrating a PR and political campaign that got Weinberger out before a trial could be held. Miller may have some sympathy in the Bush White House: Before the invasion of Iraq, administration officials cited her reporting as evidence that Saddam Hussein did have weapons of mass destruction.
Question: will the administration pardon Miller and if so, when?