Matthew Cooper (American journalist)
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Matthew Cooper (born 1963) is a political journalist with a career spanning over 30 years, currently serving as the Executive Editor of Digital at the ''
Washington Monthly ''Washington Monthly'' is a bimonthly, nonprofit magazine of United States politics and government that is based in Washington, D.C. The magazine is known for its annual ranking of American colleges and universities, which serves as an alterna ...
''. From 2014 to 2018 he was a senior writer and an editor at ''
Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely ...
''. Before that he was the managing editor for White House coverage at '' National Journal'' magazine and editor of '' National Journal Daily''. Cooper is a former reporter for ''
Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...
'' who, along with ''
New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' reporter
Judith Miller Judith Miller (born January 2, 1948) is an American journalist and commentator known for her coverage of Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) program both before and after the 2003 invasion, which was later discovered to have been based on ...
was held in contempt of court and threatened with imprisonment for refusing to testify before the Grand Jury regarding the
Valerie Plame Valerie Elise Plame (born August 13, 1963) is an American writer, spy novelist, and former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer. As the subject of the 2003 Plame affair, also known as the CIA leak scandal, Plame's identity as a CIA officer ...
CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
leak investigation. He was a blogger for ''
Talking Points Memo ''Talking Points Memo'' (''TPM'') is a liberal political news and opinion website created and run by Josh Marshall that debuted on November 12, 2000. The name is a reference to the memo (short list) consisting of the issues (points) discussed b ...
'' in early 2009, and contributed to the magazine ''
Condé Nast Portfolio Portfolio.com was a website published by American City Business Journals that provideed news and information for small to mid-sized businesses (SMB). It was previously the website for the monthly business magazine ''Condé Nast Portfolio'', pub ...
'' until it closed in April, 2009, after which he became a correspondent for ''The Atlantic'' magazine. He worked for the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission on a book about the group's findings from the economic collapse in 2010. In 2018, Cooper resigned from his senior writer position at ''
Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely ...
'' after two top editors were fired for investigating their parent company's potential illegal dealings. In his resignation letter, Cooper cited the company's dwindling standards and “reckless leadership” following several scandals both editorial and organizational.


Contempt of court

On June 29, 2005, U.S. Federal judge Thomas F. Hogan gave Miller and Cooper one week to comply with the Grand Jury order to testify or face the maximum penalty of 18 months in prison The
United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
declined the reporters' appeal of the contempt of court finding. On July 6, 2005, Cooper agreed to testify, thus avoiding being held in contempt of court and sent to jail. Cooper said "I went to bed ready to accept the sanctions for not testifying," but told the judge that not long before his early afternoon appearance at court he had received "in somewhat dramatic fashion" an indication from his source freeing him from his commitment to keep his source's identity secret. Cooper stated in court that he did not previously accept a general waiver to journalists signed by his source (whom he did not identify by name), because he had made a personal pledge of confidentiality to his source. The 'dramatic change' which allowed Cooper to testify was later revealed to be a phone conversation between lawyers for Cooper and his source confirming that the waiver signed two years earlier applied to conversations with Cooper. Citing a "person who has been officially briefed on the case," ''The New York Times'' identified Karl Rove as the individual in question.Adam Liptak and David Johnston
"A Reporter Jailed: The Overview: Reporter Jailed After Refusing to Name Source,"
''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' July 7, 2005.
Rove's own lawyer later confirmed this information. According to one of Cooper's lawyers, Cooper had previously testified before the grand jury regarding conversations with Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Jr., chief of staff for Vice President Dick Cheney, after having received Libby's specific permission to testify. Rove's own lawyer later confirmed this information.Matthew Cooper
"What I Told the Grand Jury,"
''
Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...
'' July 17, 2005, accessed November 19, 2005.
On July 25, 2005, Cooper wrote an account of his grand jury testimony for ''
Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...
''. The article, entitled "What I Told The Grand Jury," concludes:
So did Rove leak Plame's name to me, or tell me she was covert? No. Was it through my conversation with Rove that I learned for the first time that Wilson's wife worked at the CIA and may have been responsible for sending him? Yes. Did Rove say that she worked at the "agency" on "WMD"? Yes. When he said things would be declassified soon, was that itself impermissible? I don't know. Is any of this a crime? Beats me. At this point, I'm as curious as anyone else to see what Patrick Fitzgerald has.
. . . In that testimony, I recounted an on-the-record conversation with Libby that moved to background. On the record, he denied that Cheney knew about or played any role in the Wilson trip to Niger. On background, I asked Libby if he had heard anything about Wilson's wife sending her husband to Niger. Libby replied, 'Yeah, I've heard that too,' or words to that effect. Like Rove, Libby never used Valerie Plame's name or indicated that her status was covert, and he never told me that he had heard about Plame from other reporters, as some press accounts have indicated.


Personal

Matthew Cooper attended
Columbia High School Columbia High School may refer to: *Columbia High School (Huntsville, Alabama) *Columbia High School (Georgia) *Columbia High School (Florida) *Columbia High School (Idaho) *Columbia High School (Illinois) *Columbia High School (Mississippi), a Mis ...
in Maplewood, New Jersey, followed by
Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
. He has been divorced since 2009 from Hillary Clinton's media consultant
Mandy Grunwald Madeleine Grunwald (born January 23, 1957) is an American professional political consultant and media advisor for the Democratic Party. Grunwald is one of the few women at the top of the field, having helped elect numerous senators and governors ...
, whom he married in 1997 and separated from in 2007. They have a son, Benjamin, born in 1998.


Notes


References

*Cooper, Matthew.
"The Iraq Debate We Deserved: Both Bush and Kerry Scored Points in a Smart, Rousing Debate."
*–––, Massimo Calabresi, and John F. Dickerson

Inside the Bush Administration's Feud with the Diplomat who Poured Cold Water on the Iraq-Uranium Connection," ''
Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...
'' July 17, 2003, accessed November 19, 2006. Concerns
Joseph C. Wilson Joseph Charles Wilson IV (November 6, 1949 – September 27, 2019) was an American diplomat who was best known for his 2002 trip to Niger to investigate allegations that Saddam Hussein was attempting to purchase yellowcake uranium; his ''New Y ...
, husband of Valerie E. Wilson
Valerie Plame Valerie Elise Plame (born August 13, 1963) is an American writer, spy novelist, and former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer. As the subject of the 2003 Plame affair, also known as the CIA leak scandal, Plame's identity as a CIA officer ...
.


External links

*
Capital blog by Cooper at Portfolio.com

"Confidentiality of Journalists' Sources Under Threat"
at IFEX.
Matt Cooper on The Daily Show, April 23, 2007
with comments posted a
Salon, April 24, 2007
an

Cooper: "I think it's up to reporters to talk to a lot of people and sort it out." Stewart: "Why don't they?"
Matt Cooper: Behind the Scenes at Daily Show
Conde Nast Portfolio, April 25, 2007. *
Video (and audio) of discussion/debate with Cooper
on
Bloggingheads.tv Bloggingheads.tv (sometimes abbreviated "bhtv") is a political, world events, philosophy, and science video blog discussion site in which the participants take part in an active back and forth conversation via webcam which is then broadcast on ...

Matthew Cooper
at
SourceWatch The Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) is a progressive nonprofit watchdog and advocacy organization based in Madison, Wisconsin. CMD publishes ExposedbyCMD.org, SourceWatch.org, and ALECexposed.org. History CMD was founded in 1993 by prog ...

Washington Monthly Masthead
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cooper, Matthew 1963 births Living people American newspaper reporters and correspondents Place of birth missing (living people) Columbia High School (New Jersey) alumni People associated with the Plame affair Columbia College (New York) alumni