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... and there was no real consensus on it. One good suggestion was that Fitzgerald was simply trying to get enough background information to put Novak in the hot seat when he was subpoenaed by the grand jury. There's no indication that Novak has been called yet.
My thought was that because the appeals court decision was written by Sentelle, the court was helping the Bushies by trying to freeze up anonymous sources and cut off government leaks--by taking on reporters from the New York Times and Newsweek, the appeals court was trying to indirectly trying to stick a finger in the collective eye of government leakers.
Of course, there's been so little information available that it's all speculation. If the investigation is proceeding more or less honestly, my guess is that Fitgerald is trying to get the information from the people who didn't run the original story--the legal logic might be that because they didn't immediately run with the story, they didn't have a story (and sources) to protect, the very clear argument that Novak could make in refusing to testify.
If the investigation is not proceeding honestly, as some have said, it could be a way of making the story about Miller and the Newsweek writer, rather than about the outing of Plame, creating a backstory, if you will.
Cheers.
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