Judy Miller Freed - Will Testify

As her newspaper, the New York Times, reports tonight, jailed reporter Judith Miller was released from jail this evening after agreeing to testify in the Valerie Plame Wilson leak case. Miller received "what she described as a waiver offered 'voluntarily and personally' by a source who said she was no longer bound by any pledge of confidentiality she had made to him." That source, says the Times, was Dick Cheney's chief of staff, Scooty Libby (who apparently thought he had released Miller from her confidentiality pledge months ago but she wanted something more specific).

Miller had been in jail since July 6. She plans to testify before the grand jury tomorrow in Washington. The prosecutor in the case, Patrick Fitzgerald, "has said that obtaining Ms. Miller's testimony was one of the last remaining objectives of his inquiry, and the deal with Ms. Miller suggests that the prosecutor may soon bring the long-running investigation to an end. It is unknown whether prosecutors will charge anyone in the Bush administration with wrongdoing," as the Times notes.

Now that this investigation is apparently winding toward a conclusion (finally), we should soon know whether any indictments will be forthcoming. It could be a very unpleasant fall for the Bush Administration ... or the entire thing could fizzle out in a week or so. Only time will tell.