This could get interesting. Valerie Plame has filed a civil lawsuit against Dick Cheney, Scooter Libby and Karl Rove for revealing her identity as a CIA agent. The actual complaint can be found here.
More like this
Spook Larry Johnson explains new revelations from reporters at the Nation:
Valerie Plame was working undercover as a senior CIA operations officer.
Amy Sullivan has this delightful little passage in an article about Robert Novak, the reporter/commentator who passed on information from "senior administration officials" about the identity of Valerie Plame, ending h
We now know that Pakistan sold nuclear secrets to Libya and North Korea and who knows who else. The assumption was that the nuclear secrets were Pakistan's.
On my recent trip to Denver to see my brother's graduation ceremony, my father and I talked a lot of politics, as we always do when we're together. My father is a lifelong Republican who has, to my knowledge, never voted for anyone but a Republican in any race above the local level.
Should be interesting. I wonder why Novak wasn't named a co-defendant?
Ed,
Isn't there some statute that protects governement employees from civil suit when in the exucution of their duties that might come into play here. Granted it's a stretch to say what happened was a part of their duties but you can see them making that point. And that the evidence isn't really that rock solid as to what happend (although it seems pretty obvious) is this purely for show or do they (or you for that matter) think they expect any vicotry in the suit?
oh jebus. Typos galore, please excuse them. I'm making a habit of this.
If that statute is found to cover leaks to the press for the purpose of defaming people, then I for one advocate that the next Democratic administration do its d*mnedest to issue defamatory leaks about critics every day of the week. Especially since all of those critics are known pedophiles and terrorists :)
I don't think such immunity would qualify in this case. I think it applies in terms of policy decisions, legislation passed, and so forth. But I could be wrong.
I think that's exactly the point of the suit (or should be)--abuse of power for non-governmental purposes. After all, suppose Cheney got mad at someone and went out and shot him? There would be no executive privilige in that case.
I guess I'm refering to sovereign immunity. I'm no legal expert by any stretch but I can see them using this as a defense. Being that they were in contact with Novak because they are in the federal positions (I guess that's what Rove is in, that or assistant to Lucifer) and that because of this they were acting as agents of the federal government.
It might be weak, actually it probably is, but it seems like these are the types of pathways that the Administration takes when confronted with it's less that squeeky clean actions.
By the way, I think the chances of winning this suit are pretty slim. I would not be surprised to see it dismissed.
I suspect the primary reason for this suit is deposition. I suspect it will survive at least that long -- Wilson has some good lawyers working from him.
I do find it ironic to see the droolings from some of the more conservative blogs about the defendant's chances to depose Wilson and his wife. I think some of them still secretly believe Fitzgerald's investigation will end with Wilson's arrest for outing his own wife.
There's a RW troglodyte on a board I frequent who refers to the Wilsons as "the Wilsonbergs," and predicts that Fitzgerald's investigation will culminate in an indictment of the two of them for treason.
As far as I know, he is not posting from a mental hospital.
No, probably Rove's office.
I presume the point is that (a la OJ) a civil suit has a lower standard of proof than a criminal case. We already know that Fitzgerald's investigation was very interested in Rove, but decided the evidence wasn't strong enough to indict him. Maybe it's strong enough for a civil decision. At any rate, it will keep Rove, Cheney, etc. pre-occupied for a while.
IAONAL ( IA Obviously NAL)
Any comments on the odds of W pardoning Scooter before he leaves office?