Leaker Revealed!
They're not facing jail anymore.
Troy Ellerman has admitted to leaking secret grand jury testimony from baseball players in the BALCO steroids case to San Francisco Chronicle reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams. The Department of Justice says the reporters' subpoenas will be withdrawn and their testimony is expected to be rendered moot by the judge in the leak investigation case.
Ellerman represented BALCO in the original case and he is pleading guilty to violating a judge's order not to disclose the transcripts. He could be sentenced to up to two years in prison and up to $250,000 in fines.
Adding insult to injury, the Chronicle reports that "while he was secretly leaking the transcripts, Ellerman acknowledged Wednesday, he was publicly complaining to a federal judge about the leaks, and even filed a motion in October 2004 to dismiss charges, arguing that the disclosures made a fair trial 'practically impossible.'"
It's obviously a good outcome for the reporters involved (jail would have been kind of a downer.) But one media watcher reveals a glitch.
Mark Feldstein, a George Washington University professor and journalism historian who is often procured to comment on such issues, had this to say to the Chronicle: "Someone who may be thinking about leaking information to the press may think twice if he knows he's going to go to jail."