THE PLAME WALL OF SILENCE CRUMBLES:

A reporter is being held in contempt of court and faces possible jail time, and another was earlier threatened by a federal judge with the same fate, after they refused to answer questions from a special prosecutor investigating whether administration officials illegally disclosed the name of a covert CIA officer last year.

Newly-released court orders show U.S. District Court Chief Judge Thomas F. Hogan two weeks ago ordered Matt Cooper of Time magazine and Tim Russert of NBC to appear before a grand jury and tell whether they knew that White House sources provided the identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame to the media. . . .

Both journalists had earlier tried to quash the subpoenas issued by Fitzgerald in May. But, citing a Supreme Court decision, Judge Hogan ruled that journalists have no privilege to protect anonymous sources when the state has a compelling interest to investigate or prosecute a crime.

Hogan wrote in his just-unsealed order that the information requested from Cooper and Russert is “very limited” and that “all available alternative means of obtaining the information have been exhausted.” He added that “the testimony sought is expected to constitute direct evidence of innocence or guilt.”

The opinion is here. (Via Baseball Crank.) Maybe we’ll finally get to the bottom of the “who leaked” scandal once the press — which has known all along — tells us. Earlier posts here and here.

UPDATES: Readers wonder where Robert Novak is in all of this? Since grand jury testimony is normally secret, it’s entirely possible that he was subpoenaed and testified — the only way we know about Russert and Cooper is that they refused to comply. But there’s no way to know.