Feds grill NYT reporter about CIA leak...

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Feds grill NYT reporter about CIA leak...

James Risen, in Tense Testimony, Refuses to Offer Clues on Sources

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — James Risen, a reporter for The New York Times, took the witness stand in federal court on Monday and refused to answer any questions that could help the Justice Department home in on his confidential sources.

In tense, sometimes confrontational testimony, Mr. Risen declared in the pretrial hearing that he would not say anything that could help prosecutors in their case against a former C.I.A. officer who is set to go on trial soon on charges of providing classified information to Mr. Risen for his 2006 book “State of War.”

Mr. Risen has been challenging a subpoena in the case for years, but this was his first appearance in court. His case is the highest-profile matter in the Justice Department’s unprecedented crackdown on government officials who talk to journalists covering national security. Mr. Risen fought the subpoena to the Supreme Court and lost, but said he would still not reveal his sources.

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“I am not going to provide the government with information that they seem to want to use to create a mosaic to prove or disprove certain facts,” Mr. Risen said.

James Risen, a reporter for The New York Times, arrived at federal court in Alexandria, Va., on Monday. Credit Cliff Owen/Associated Press

The hearing in Federal District Court here was intended to preview what Mr. Risen would say at trial if the Justice Department ordered him to testify in the case of Jeffrey A. Sterling, a former C.I.A. officer. In Chapter 9 of his book, Mr. Risen describes a botched C.I.A. operation in Iran, and prosecutors have accused Mr. Sterling of revealing those details.

“Has your position changed as a result of litigation in this case?” asked James Trump, a federal prosecutor.

“No,” Mr. Risen replied.

“It is your position that, regardless of any threat of sanctions, you would not testify as to the identity of the source or sources who provided information for Chapter 9?” Mr. Trump asked.

“Yes,” Mr. Risen said.

Prosecutors have said they cannot win at trial without Mr. Risen’s testimony. Yet Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., who authorized the subpoena years ago, surprised many in the Justice Department when he announced last month that he would not force Mr. Risen to go to jail if he did not testify. That caused tension between career prosecutors and Mr. Holder, who said he now believed that his leak crackdown went too far at times.

Mr. Holder’s edict set up Monday’s unusual hearing. Prosecutors did not ask Mr. Risen for the information they fought for years to elicit: the identity of his sources, where he met them and what information they provided. Instead, prosecutors focused largely on basic information that Mr. Risen had already said publicly, such as the fact that he relied on confidential sources for his book and that he separately interviewed Mr. Sterling for an unrelated article for The Times.

But even getting that information from Mr. Risen did not come easily, sending a clear signal to prosecutors that if they forced him to take the stand at trial, he would not be a friendly witness. In one exchange, Mr. Trump tried to get Mr. Risen to acknowledge that he had had a confidential source for Chapter 9 and had promised that source confidentiality.

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“In my stories or my book, where I say I had unidentified sources, I had unidentified sources,” Mr. Risen said again and again. “Where I say I had identified sources, I had identified sources.”

Edward B. MacMahon, a lawyer for Mr. Sterling, said that without more information from Mr. Risen, the government had no case. He said prosecutors could not even prove that the leak had occurred in Virginia, a first step to bringing charges there. Mr. MacMahon said he would ask the judge to dismiss all charges.

Judge Leonie M. Brinkema did not indicate how she would respond to such a request. She issued an early ruling favorable to Mr. Risen, but that was overturned on appeal.

The judge said little during Mr. Risen’s testimony. She stepped in, however, when Mr. Risen turned around the hearing on a defense lawyer, and later on a prosecutor.

“It doesn’t work that way,” Judge Brinkema said. “You can’t ask him questions. That’s the reporter in you.”

Mr. Sterling’s trial is scheduled to begin next Monday. Prosecutors gave no indication in court whether, in light of Mr. Risen’s testimony, they planned to put him on the stand in front of a jury.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/06/us/james-risen-in-tense-testimony-refuses-to-offer-clues-on-sources.html?_r=0