Plame Sues Cheney, Libby, Rove

The breaking story is here. She alleges that Cheney, Libby, and Rove conspired to destroy her career in retaliation for her hunsband Joe Wilson’s criticisms of the Administration’s Iraq policy after his investigation into the discredited Niger nuke connection.

It will be interesting to see how much the court paper read like a standard retaliation suit or whether they will turn on the issue of when/whether the Vice President is able to declassify information. Probably a bit of both.

Updates to follow.

UPDATES

This from ABC News:

The lawsuit accuses Cheney, Libby, Rove and 10 unnamed administration officials or political operatives of putting the Wilsons and their children’s lives at risk by exposing Plame.

“This lawsuit concerns the intentional and malicious exposure by senior officials of the federal government of … (Plame), whose job it was to gather intelligence to make the nation safer and who risked her life for her country,” the Wilsons’ lawyers said in the lawsuit.

Nonliquet has included a link to the complaint in the first comment, below. The complaint is also here.

DaliyKos is rounding up alot of the blogger commentary on this. Here’s a statement just out from Joe Wilson on DailyKos:

“Robert Novak, some other commentators and the Administration continue to try to completely distort the role that Valerie Wilson played with respect to Ambassador Wilson’s trip to Niger. The facts are beyond dispute. The Office of the Vice President requested that the CIA investigate reports of alleged uranium purchases by Iraq from Niger. The CIA setup a meeting to respond to the Vice President’s inquiry. Another CIA official, not Valerie Wilson, suggested to Valerie Wilson’s supervisor that the Ambassador attend that meeting. That other CIA official made the recommendation because that official was familiar with the Ambassador’s vast experience in Niger and knew of a previous trip to Africa concerning uranium matters that had been undertaken by the Ambassador on behalf of the CIA in 1999. Valerie Wilson’s supervisor subsequently asked her to relay a request from him to the Ambassador that he would like the Ambassador to attend the meeting at the CIA. Valerie Wilson did not participate in the meeting.

As the CIA itself has officially confirmed, Valerie Wilson did not send Ambassador Wilson to Niger and she neither suggested him nor recommended him for the trip. Furthermore, the Ambassador agreed to travel to Niger pro bono with only his travel expenses being paid.”