- By several accounts, some government officials initially did not take the case seriously, not bothering to retain lawyers before they were interviewed by F.B.I. agents. One person close to Mr. Powell said he did not have a lawyer when he testified to the grand jury investigating the leak and does not have one now.
The blasé attitude might have been encouraged in part by official statements from Scott McClellan, Mr. Fleischer's replacement as White House press secretary, that Mr. Rove and other officials had played no role in leaking Ms. Wilson's identity.
But the atmosphere surrounding the inquiry has changed. Revelations in recent weeks that Mr. Rove discussed the Wilsons with at least two reporters have called into question the earlier White House denials. And the jailing on July 6 of Judith Miller, a Times reporter, for refusing to reveal confidential sources to the grand jury, has suggested high stakes for the investigation.
Mr. Fitzgerald's actions have been mostly hidden from view, but his public pursuit of Ms. Miller gave a glimpse of a deadly serious prosecutor on the trail of a major case.
When Ms. Miller's lawyers argued that her stance protected a crucial principle for a free press, Mr. Fitzgerald did not flinch.
"We cannot tolerate that," he said in court. "We are trying to get to the bottom of whether a crime was committed and by whom."
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