Court Refuses To Resurrect Plame Lawsuit

WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court said yesterday it would not resurrect a lawsuit that a former CIA operative, Valerie Plame, brought against members of the Bush administration.Ms. Plame accused Vice President Cheney and several former high-ranking administration officials of disclosing her identity to reporters in 2003. She and her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, say that violated their constitutional rights.It was an unusual case and even some on Ms. Plame’s legal team acknowledged the case was an uphill fight from the start.A federal judge dismissed the case last year and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld that ruling yesterday.The appeals court said there was no constitutional basis for the court to step in and it declined to create one. The judges said Ms. Plame and Mr. Wilson could bring their case under the Privacy Act, though it does not cover the president or vice president’s offices. The court also said it must be reluctant to wade into national security issues.Ms. Plame’s attorney at the liberal watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, Melanie Sloan, said Ms. Plame was considering an appeal.“It is simply unacceptable for top government officials to be unaccountable for such a gross abuse of their power,” Ms. Sloan said.The lawsuit named a former presidential adviser, Karl Rove; Cheney’s former top aide, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, and a former deputy secretary of State, Richard Armitage.Mr. Armitage was the original source for a 2003 newspaper column identifying Ms. Plame as a CIA officer. At the time, her husband was criticizing the Bush administration’s prewar intelligence on Iraq and had become a thorn in the side of the White House. Mr. Rove also discussed Ms. Plame’s employment with reporters.The leak touched off a lengthy investigation that led to Libby’s conviction on charges of obstruction and lying to investigators. Jurors found that, when questioned by the FBI and a federal grand jury investigating the leak, he lied about his conversations with reporters. Mr. Bush commuted Libby’s sentence, and he never served a day in prison.The Justice Department declined comment.

Court Refuses To Resurrect Plame Lawsuit

Court Refuses To Resurrect Plame Lawsuit

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