Did GOP Lawyer (Toensing) Mislead Congress About Plame Case? (The Nation)

[marmar]

by David Corn

BLOG | Posted 03/19/2007 @ 3:48pm
Did GOP Lawyer Mislead Congress About Plame Case?


I've had many a conservative say many an unflattering--and untrue--thing about me over the years (while some have been kind and accurate). But I don't believe any detractor has testified falsely about me before the U.S. Congress--not until Republican lawyer/commentator Victoria Toensing appeared before the House oversight and government reform committee on Friday.

Toensing was on a panel that was part of the hearing starring retired CIA officer Valerie (Plame) Wilson, who for the first time publicly discussed at length the leak episode and her former status at the agency as a covert officer. After Wilson finished and after James Knodell, director of security at the White House, testified (to the surprise and outrage of Democratic members of the committee) that the White House never investigated the possible involvement of White House officials (such as Karl Rove) in the Plame leak, Toensing took a seat at the witness table.

Toensing, who was a lawyer for the Republican-run Senate intelligence committee in the 1980s and a Justice Department official during the Reagan administration, has been a point-person for the Libby Lobby, denouncing special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation of the Plame leak and deriding his indictment of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former top aide, for perjury and obstruction of justice. At the hearing, Toensing, looking to absolve White House officials of wrongdoing, blasted the CIA for not adequately protecting Valerie Wilson, and she argued that Valerie Wilson was not a "covert agent" under the terms of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act, which makes it a crime for a government official to disclose information about an undercover CIA officer in certain circumstances. Toensing helped draft the law in the early 1980s. (More on all that in a moment.)
.....(snip).....

In her recent Washington Post piece, Toensing wrote of Valerie Wilson, "She worked at CIA headquarters and had not been stationed abroad within five years of the date of Novak's column." This means, Toensing has argued, that Valerie Wilson could not be covered by the Intelligence Identities Protection Act. But Valerie Wilson testified that she had been dispatched on overseas missions under cover in the five years prior to the Novak column--an indication she had "served" abroad. (Hubris reported that as well.) Toensing is free to maintain that the law ought to cover only those officers residing overseas as part of a long-term foreign assignment. But that is not what the act says. By stating that the act defines a "covert agent" as an officer residing abroad (as opposed to an officer who had "served" overseas), Toensing misrepresented the law to members of the committee. (By the way, both Fitzgerald and the CIA have said that Valerie Wilson's employment relationship with the CIA was classified.)

As a lawyer, Toensing is probably aware that knowingly making a false statement to a congressional committee conducting an investigation or review is a federal crime. (See Title 18, Section 1001 of the U.S. Code.) The punishment is a fine and/or imprisonment of up to five years. To say that I identified Valerie Wilson as a "covert" officer is to make a false statement. ......


The complete piece is at: http://www.thenation.com/blogs/capitalgames?bid=3&pid=177049

[4bucksagallon]

1. This could get interesting............

[texpatriot2004]

2. K & R nm

[ninkasi]

3. Toensing lied

I hope she is prosecuted for that lie. The right-wing tries to maintain their lies until they are slapped down by overwhelming evidence of their lying,when the truth finally comes out. I don't think one of them could tell the truth for more than 15 minutes if their lives depended on it.

[AtomicKitten]

4. Ms. Toensing is one of the nastier trolls commenting on this.

She shouldn't be bragging about co-writing the law because it was written so poorly that Fitz had trouble applying it to those that should have been prosecuted under it.

[Evergreen Emerald]

6. That is what I thought

What has been universally accepted is that the law was written poorly, not something to brag about

[gratuitous]

7. Oh but she does brag about writing the law poorly

It was apparently her intent to write the law in such a way that no one could ever be prosecuted under it. And so Scooter got nailed, not for blowing Plame's cover, but for lying to investigators and obstructing justice. Toensing has opined over and over that the law which she wrote so poorly is not designed to be enforced, and she's apparently quite proud of that fact.

When you look up "twisted" in the dictionary, Vickie's photo is there.

[frogcycle]

5. k&r - good read

[Supersedeas]

8. I'll second that.