Plame-Wilson Lawsuit Dismissed
A federal judge threw out Joe Wilson’s and Valarie Plame’s civil suit against Vice President Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, Scooter Libby and other unnamed Bush administration officials:
U.S. District Judge John D. Bates dismissed the case on jurisdictional grounds and said he would not express an opinion on the constitutional arguments. Bates dismissed the case against all defendants: Cheney, White House political adviser Karl Rove and former White House aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby.
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Specifically, the lawsuit accused the White House officials of violating the Wilsons’ constitutional rights to equal protection and freedom of speech. It also accused the officials of violating the couple’s privacy rights.
The lawsuit alleged that Cheney, Libby and Rove used Plame to punish Wilson for his public statements about the administration’s portrayal of the intelligence on Iraq.
Logically this is a complete disaster for those who think the White House pulled off a smear of truly ugly proportions. Civil suits, where the punishment is monetary, has a lower standard of proof than criminal cases. It’s easier to win yet the Wilsons couldn’t even get to an actual trial. Add this to Libby being convicted of misleading investigators and Richard Armitage, the Bob Novak leaker, not being charged with anything. This whole story was hardball Washington, D.C. politics, not the conspiracy Joe Wilson wishes existed.
“Libby, Cheney, Rove Civil Suit Dismissed” [via Sister Toldjah]
There are three important facts in the case that people shouldn’t forget.
1) The judge is a Bush appointee.
2) The judge used to work as a partisan hack in Ken Starr’s independent council office.
3) The judge already illegally denied the General Accounting Office access to Dick Cheney’s records about his illegal secret meetings with energy company campaign donors on energy policy.