In 1987, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Mr. Siegel with illegally disclosing to Mr. Boesky confidential material about the planned merger.

The prosecutors also accused Mrs. Tripp of illegally disclosing the contents of that conversation to Newsweek magazine.

Dozens of New Yorkers contact the Legal Action Center every year, traumatized after trusted health and social service providers - including doctors - illegally disclosed their H.I.V. status.

But she is now saying she supports the appointment of a special counsel to determine whether someone in the Bush administration illegally disclosed the identity of an undercover C.I.A. officer.

Mr. Fitzgerald's investigation has centered on whether anyone in the Bush administration illegally disclosed to the news media the identity of Ms. Wilson, a C.I.A. employee.

Federal agents have begun asking reporters about any conversations they had with a former Pentagon analyst who has been charged with illegally disclosing military secrets, senior government officials said on Friday.

The ruling came in an investigation into whether Bush administration members illegally disclosed the identity of a covert C.I.A. officer.

After having published Game of Shadows, it has become a topic for debate as to whether it should be acceptable to profit from material illegally disclosed to them.

The department is investigating whether administration officials illegally disclosed the name of the officer, Valerie Plame, who is married to a former ambassador, Joseph C. Wilson IV.

Attorney General John Ashcroft disqualified himself on Tuesday from any involvement in the investigation into whether Bush administration officials illegally disclosed the identity of an undercover C.I.A. officer.