Ex-CIA agent who was outed sues Cheney, Rove and Libby

WASHINGTON — The onetime CIA agent at the center of a three-year federal leak investigation fought back Thursday, suing Vice President Dick Cheney, his former top aide and presidential counselor Karl Rove, accusing them of ruining her career and seeking revenge against her husband, an administration critic.

Valerie Plame and her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, alleged in a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court that administration officials illegally conspired to violate their constitutional rights and other laws by leaking Plame's identity to reporters.

The civil suit — filed almost three years to the day after syndicated columnist Robert Novak publicly identified Plame — seeks unspecified financial damages for what they described as a "gross invasion of privacy," that could jeopardize the safety of their children and target Plame for retribution by enemies of the United States. They also claim the incident has impaired their professional opportunities; Plame retired from the CIA after her identity was revealed.

The suit marks a new front in a Washington scandal that only a month ago seemed to have run its course after a federal prosecutor said he had decided not to bring charges against Rove, a focus of the three-year probe.

In addition to Rove and Cheney, the suit names former Cheney aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, who faces trial early next year on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice in connection with the case.

"The lawsuit concerns the intentional and malicious exposure by senior officials of the federal government of one such human source at the CIA, Valerie Plame Wilson, whose job it was to gather intelligence to make the nation safer, and who risked her life for her country," according to the complaint.

A spokesman for Rove, Mark Corallo, called the allegations "absolutely and utterly without merit."

Lea Anne McBride, Cheney's spokeswoman, said her boss would have no comment. A lawyer for Libby, William Jeffress, also declined to comment.

While legal experts were divided about the strength of the allegations, the suit is likely to become a rallying point for administration critics. The charges are rooted in one of the most divisive and intensely debated issues of the Bush presidency: whether the administration "twisted" the intelligence it used to justify the war in Iraq.

Novak published Plame's name and her employment in his syndicated column on July 14, 2003 — eight days after an op-ed article, written by her husband, ran in The New York Times. Wilson challenged Bush's assertion in the State of the Union address that year that Saddam Hussein had sought nuclear material in Africa. In 2002, Wilson was sent on a CIA mission to Niger to assess the claim; he concluded that it was unfounded.

Plame had worked as a covert agent on weapons issues. Wilson and Plame say her identity was leaked in retaliation for her husband's criticism of the administration.

Although Rove and Libby initially denied that they had anything to do with exposing Plame, an investigation by special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald showed that both men had spoken with reporters about her, and that Cheney was one of the people who gave information about Plame to Libby.

Fitzgerald's probe also revealed that Cheney was acutely concerned about Wilson's criticism and was insinuating privately that his wife had arranged the Africa trip as a "junket."

There has been no evidence that Cheney urged anyone to expose Plame. But her name ultimately surfaced as administration officials were speaking with reporters about Wilson and his column.

Legal analysts said the civil lawsuit could open new avenues for extracting information from the administration, since lawyers for Plame and Wilson could conduct discovery if the U.S. District Court in Washington lets the suit proceed.

They might be entitled to demand documents from Cheney and others, as well as to require them to sit for sworn depositions. And, since the accusations in the suit are separate from the issue Fitzgerald was looking into — whether anyone violated a federal law against disclosing CIA agents' identities — lawyers for Plame and Wilson "could go out and look into a lot of things that Fitzgerald didn't look into," said Eugene Volokh, a law professor at UCLA.

First, though, they would probably have to overcome a claim by Cheney that the vice president is immune from suit. There is no clear legal rule on that point.

If the suit goes forward, it could help answer the major unanswered question in the case: the identity of the senior administration official who tipped off Novak about Plame. Novak discussed his role in the investigation this week but has declined to reveal his main source.

Material from The Washington Post is included in this report.