Washington – The CIA leak saga did not end with Lewis “Scooter” Libby’s conviction this week. On top of his lengthy appeals, he and senior Bush administration officials face a lawsuit for their role in the exposure of a former CIA operative.
Valerie Plame believes the administration violated her constitutional rights by leaking her identity to reporters in 2003, and she is demanding compensation. Her attorneys believe the case could reveal more about the inner workings of the Bush White House than surfaced during Libby’s month-long trial.
Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney, White House political adviser Karl Rove and former State Department Deputy Secretary Richard Armitage are named in the case. So far, it has been a matter of dueling legal briefs. Lawyers are due in court in May for a hearing on whether it should be thrown out.
Plame’s attorney acknowledges he has to clear some tall hurdles to persuade a judge that she and her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, had their free-speech, due-process and privacy rights violated.
Several Bush administration officials leaked Plame’s identity to reporters after Wilson began criticizing prewar intelligence on Iraq. Nobody was charged with the leak, which would have been a crime only if someone had knowingly given out classified information. Libby was convicted Tuesday of obstructing the leak investigation and lying about how he learned about Plame.
“The Libby trial makes abundantly clear there was wrongdoing going on at the highest levels of our government, and that’s what this case is about,” said Erwin Chemerinsky, a Duke University law professor who will argue Plame’s lawsuit.
Though Libby’s criminal case and Plame’s civil suit involve a similar background, his conviction won’t bolster her case, because they involve different charges.
Plame will also testify next week before lawmakers probing how the White House dealt with her identity, the chairman of the panel said Thursday.
Also invited to testify March 16 before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is Patrick Fitzgerald, the prosecutor who this week won Libby’s conviction.
