Plame Sues Cheney, Rove and Libby
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Law, The Plame GameThe Plame Game…it continues…
WASHINGTON (AP) – The CIA officer whose identity was leaked to reporters sued Vice President Dick Cheney, his former top aide and presidential adviser Karl Rove on Thursday, accusing them and other White House officials of conspiring to destroy her career.In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court, Valerie Plame and her husband, Joseph Wilson, a former U.S. ambassador, accused Cheney, Rove and I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby of revealing Plame’s CIA identity in seeking revenge against Wilson for criticizing the Bush administration’s motives in Iraq.
She has a valid point. They did knowingly undermine her covert status, regardless of what the right-wing blogosphere will tell you.
Get ready for the fireworks.
This entry was posted on Thursday, July 13th, 2006 and is filed under Law, The Plame Game. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
July 14th, 2006 at 6:48 am
They undermined it, and there was a concerted effort to do so–regardless of whether it was illegal or whether there was evidence to prove a crime was committed. People are questioning Fitzgerald’s “attack dog” reputation now, and rightly so.
July 14th, 2006 at 7:30 am
You can not deny that there was damages. She basically can not perform duties that she once could minimizing her ability to do her job. I think she has a case, and maybe a civil suit will help to reveal a little more of what actually happened.
July 14th, 2006 at 9:21 am
According to Larry Johnson, the revelation that Valerie Plame was a covert CIA operative “destroy[ed] an intelligence network that was devoted to trying to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.” See here.
If true, the damage done to our National Security by this political play was tremendous and any partisan defense of the actions by people within the administration is untenable. I’ve heard the argument that because Libby was charged on his actions to cover up the leak, and not the leak itself that no crime was really committed. However, I find it hard to believe that he would be charged with obstruction of justice if no crime had been committed. I mean, he was charged with perjury, obstruction of justice for a reason, mainly that he was trying allegedly trying to cover up his participation in the leak of V. Plame’s name to the media as political payback for her husband’s opposition to the claims made by the President regarding Niger, and the aluminum tubes. Just because Fitzgerald cannot prove that Libby, Rove or Cheney or anyone else within the administration leaked classified information, doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. The obstruction of justice charge seems to point in this direction, as there could be no obstruction of justice if no crime had been committed.
July 14th, 2006 at 9:50 am
If she really was covert, why haven’t charges been brought under the Intelligence Identities Protection Act?
July 14th, 2006 at 10:24 am
Again, if there was obstruction of justice, someone prevented the investigation from obtaining all the evidence needed to bring charges under the IIPA.
July 14th, 2006 at 2:25 pm
But Novak has cooperated with Fitzgerald, and undoubtedly told the prosecutor who leaked to him. That name is all Fitzgerald would need to press charges – if there were a charge to press, that is.
July 14th, 2006 at 2:52 pm
Exactly, and that is why he charged Libby with obstruction of justice and perjury, because what Libby told him did not accord with what everyone else was saying. That means that either Libby was possibly lying during the conduct of an official investigation, hence obstructing of justice charge against him.
July 14th, 2006 at 4:29 pm
I think Martha Stewart might disagree with you.
July 15th, 2006 at 10:19 am
So Fitzgerald got the name of the leaker from Novak but didn’t charge Libby or anyone else with a violation of the IIPA because Libby and/or the person involved denied everything? What a nice guy that Fitzgerald is!
Somehow, I still find it more likely that Fitzgerald didn’t press charges under the IIPA because there was no violation under the IIPA.