Plame Seeks Showdown With Cheney

[kpete]

Plame Seeks Showdown With Cheney
By JOSH GERSTEIN
Staff Reporter of the Sun
May 17, 2007

A lawsuit brought by a CIA agent whose cover was blown by Bush administration officials, Valerie Plame, is expected to face a withering attack this morning at a court hearing in Washington.

Through their attorneys, the defendants in the case have denounced it as a political vendetta on the part of Ms. Plame and her husband, Joseph Wilson, a former ambassador. Named in the lawsuit are Vice President Cheney, his former chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby Jr., President Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove, and a former deputy secretary of state, Richard Armitage.

"This case is a political exercise masquerading as a civil lawsuit," Mr. Armitage's lawyers complained in their motion to dismiss the case. Judge John Bates is scheduled to hear two hours of arguments today on whether the suit should go forward. The federal government, which was not named as a defendant, has also urged that the case be thrown out.

The lawsuit alleges a plot among government officials to expose Ms. Plame's CIA affiliation as retribution for her husband's criticism of claims Mr. Bush used to justify the invasion of Iraq. In particular, the suit claims that the defendants violated Mr. Wilson's right to freedom of speech, violated the couple's rights to equal protection under the law, violated Ms. Plame's constitutional right to privacy, and deprived Ms. Plame of her property interest in continuing employment at the CIA. The suit also alleges that the defendants committed a tort against her by disclosing "private facts," namely her classified affiliation with the agency.

more at:
http://www.nysun.com/article/54630

[HereSince1628]

1. Best wishes to the Plame team.

Go Val!

[sinkingfeeling]

2. I'm not hopeful for the Wilsons considering Judge Bates bio.

http://www.dcd.uscourts.gov/bates-bio.html

Judge Bates was appointed United States District Judge in December 2001. He graduated from Wesleyan University in 1968 and received a J.D. from the University of Maryland School of Law in 1976. From 1968 to 1971, he served in the United States Army, including a tour in Vietnam. Judge Bates clerked for Judge Roszel C. Thomsen of the United States District Court for the District of Maryland from 1976 to 1977 and was an associate at Steptoe & Johnson from 1977 to 1980. He served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Columbia from 1980 to 1997, and was Chief of the Civil Division of the U.S. Attorney's Office from 1987 to 1997. Judge Bates was on detail as Deputy Independent Counsel for the Whitewater investigation from 1995 to mid-1997. In 1998, he joined the Washington law firm of Miller & Chevalier, where he was Chair of the Government Contracts/Litigation Department and a member of the Executive Committee. Judge Bates has served on the Advisory Committee for Procedures of the D.C. Circuit and on the Civil Justice Reform Committee for the District Court, and as Treasurer of the D.C. Bar, Chairman of the Publications Committee of the D.C. Bar, and Chairman of the Litigation Section of the Federal Bar Association. He was a member of the Board of Directors of the Washington Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs. In 2005, he was appointed by Chief Justice Rehnquist to serve on the U.S. Judicial Conference Committee on Court Administration and Case Management. In February 2006, he was appointed by Chief Justice Roberts to serve as a judge of the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court

[Justitia]

5. ugh, you're right, that's ugly -eom

[Norquist Nemesis]

7. Why?

Really tried to see what the two of you are seeing. :shrug:

[11 Bravo]

8. Endorsements from Rehnquist and Roberts cause my antennae to tingle.

[sinkingfeeling]

12. He was a deputy USA under Ronnie, the Civil Division chief under Bush I,

a deputy in the Whitewater investigation, and appointed by Roberts to the FIS court. Pretty heavy into the 'right' side of things.

[Norquist Nemesis]

13. Well...okay... It took a little more googling

because I wasn't getting that from the above bio. He was kept on under Clinton administration too and until Gonzo came along, the DOJ was held in fairly high esteem. On Renquist and Roberts, who else would have done the appointing for those things?

But then found this piece by Dana Milbank that Bates was the judge who made the decision on Cheney's energy 'task force'. He details what he (Milbank) sees as similarities for Bates in the two cases of Cheney and the Whitewater. The resulting decision of Bates isn't too positive for Milbank's 'analysis'.

http://foi.missouri.edu/execprivilege/isjudgespast.html

"As a deputy to Whitewater prosecutor Kenneth W. Starr in 1997, Bates was a key figure in a case called Office of the President v. Office of Independent Counsel. Bates tried fervently to get the release of White House documents, winning the case when the Supreme Court refused to reconsider an appellate court ruling in Starr's favor.

The facts of the two cases are different. The one Bates fought was an attorney-client privilege case involving notes of then-first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton's conversations with government lawyers about her former law firm's billing records. The Walker case -- about whether the White House must disclose who met with Cheney and his aides and what energy advice they gave -- hinges on the GAO's statutory authority to sue the executive branch.

But the similarities are strong. In both cases, the White House (first President Bill Clinton and then Bush) argued that presidential advisers must be able to give confidential advice and disclosing that advice would have a "chilling effect" on presidential decision-making. In both cases, the White House said that its opponent was on a "fishing" expedition and that the matter should be handled not by the courts but in the give-and-take of the legislature. And in both cases, the White House decided not to invoke executive privilege, inviting a precedent-setting legal battle by relying on less absolute legal arguments."

So, I'm with you guys!

[Norquist Nemesis]

6. A little suprised on the last sentence of that bio

Isn't that the "secret court"? I dunno, though. Over all, without looking at a record of his rulings it looks fairly ummm...strong to me. :shrug:

[wtmusic]

11. Who assigns these judges anyway?

If it's the DOJ this is an exercise in futility.

[Norquist Nemesis]

14. *ahem* Remember "Advice and Consent"?

Pretty sure that Bush 'nominates' for a specific area and the Senate gives the "consent".

[wtmusic]

15. I meant to the specific cases. nt

[Norquist Nemesis]

16. Not sure if this helps ...

http://www.law.du.edu/courts/Jones_article_webmaterial_2000.htm

Trying to find an answer isn't easy.

[wtmusic]

18. Complicated

As long as it stays in the judiciary, which it seems to do, there is a shot at impartiality

Maybe she just got some bad luck.

Anyway, thanks for info. :thumbsup:

[samsingh]

3. good for her

[BOSSHOG]

4. Conservative bastards whining about a political vendetta

how incredibly rich.

[unpossibles]

9. no shit.

as someone who was (IS) sickened by the Clinton, Kennedy, etc. witch hunts, their crying "FOUL!!" is such a larf. It's like the school bully who get spunched and starts crying to the teacher.

Knowing Armitage's sordid history, I hope the Plame's don't have an "accident"

[PRETZEL]

10. I'll wait til the ruling,

the Wilson's have a very very strong case in my opinion. They also have precedence on their side. Besides, what better way to create an ever greater contraversy than to have a Bush appointed judge ruling in favor of the Bush Administration officials.

Personally, I think the Administration wants no publicity on this case.

[Jack Rabbit]

17. The Bushies say the Wilsons are on a political vendetta?

Now that's rich.

[leftchick]

19. there is no irony meter big enough for these bastards.

:grr: