WASHINGTON - A federal judge on Thursday dismissed former CIA operative Valerie Plame's lawsuit against members of the Bush administration in the CIA leak scandal.
That's "scandal" in similar usage to the word "nonsense."
Plame, the wife of former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, had accused Vice President Dick Cheney and others of conspiring to leak her identity in 2003. Plame said that violated her privacy rights and was illegal retribution for her husband's criticism of the administration.
Except that all of what this story says Plame alleges here, in paragraph two, is false. Otherwise someone - Richard Armitage, Scooter Libby, Karl Rove, Vice President Cheney - would have been charged with something. However special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald found no evidence to support a conspiracy, no evidence of a willful leak, and no evidence that Plame was covered under the relevant statute. Libby was convicted of lying to investigators about a non-crime, one for which Mr. Fitzgerald knew the source of the information from the moment he took on the case.
U.S. District Judge John D. Bates dismissed the case on jurisdictional grounds and said he would not express an opinion on the constitutional arguments. Bates dismissed the case against all defendants: Cheney, White House political adviser Karl Rove and former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.
No frog-marching here, either.
7/19/07 1730: It seems it wasn't purely a jurisdictional dismissal. Via Hot Air - scroll down to the update.
The court was right to throw out the lame Plame suit. Good analysis of the Libby case as well.
Have a great night!
Posted by: Donald Douglas | Jul 19, 2007 at 06:59 PM
"no evidence of a willful leak"
really? What happened then -- Wilson blasts the Admin, and Admin officials ACCIDENTALLY try to undermine him to reporters?!?
You just keep holding onto that dream like a warm teddy bear
Posted by: busboy33 | Aug 01, 2007 at 08:16 AM