Michael Isikoff reports:

Newly released court papers could put holes in the defense of Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff, I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, in the Valerie Plame leak case. Lawyers for Libby, and White House allies, have repeatedly questioned whether Plame, the wife of White House critic Joe Wilson, really had covert status when she was outed to the media in July 2003. But special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald found that Plame had indeed done “covert work overseas” on counterproliferation matters in the past five years, and the CIA “was making specific efforts to conceal” her identity, according to newly released portions of a judge’s opinion.

Remember our own Larry Johnson’s appearance on CNN with Wolf Blitzer? It was on October 26, 2005. We posted the transcript on that day:

BLITZER: Let me read to you from a Bob Novak column in the “Chicago Sun-Times” and other newspapers October 1, 2003, a couple of months or so after he revealed her name.

He writes this. He wrote this, at last — at least, two years ago: “It was well known around Washington that Wilson’s wife worked for the CIA. Republican activist Clifford May wrote Monday, in ‘National Review Online,’ that he had been told of her identity by a non-government source before my column appeared and that it was common knowledge. Her name, Valerie Plame, was no secret either, appearing in Wilson’s — Joe Wilson — “Who’s Who in America” entry”.

JOHNSON: Yes. Well, that’s…

BLITZER: That doesn’t make it sound like she was very covert.

JOHNSON: Not only does — you know, Bob Novak once again demonstrates he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. And that is a lie. I defy anybody — I have got $5,000 that says that you can’t find a reference to Valerie Plame and the CIA prior to Robert Novak’s column. Can’t do it. The fact that she’s married…

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Well, why would Clifford May say that he knew about it?

JOHNSON: Clifford May has been wrong on a whole variety of things.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: But he’s a respected guy, Clifford May.

JOHNSON: Well, he’s respected by some people. I don’t respect him, because I…

BLITZER: I have known him for many years…

JOHNSON: I…

BLITZER: … going back to when he was a reporter for the “New York Times.”

JOHNSON: His information — his information — his information on this issue has been repeatedly wrong. And, again, I’ll bet Clifford May $5,000. Find the reference prior to Robert Novak’s column in which that information was out there. It wasn’t out there.

Not only that, when Valerie wrote that check to Al Gore’s campaign as a member of Brewster-Jennings, she was living her cover. Not a single neighbor knew that she worked for the CIA. She protected that cover. She was in the process of moving from non-official cover to official cover, but, under the law, official cover’s still protected.


— Transcript

Remember this little tidbit from the Washington Times? It was from July 15th, 2005.

A former CIA covert agent who supervised Mrs. Plame early in her career yesterday took issue with her identification as an “undercover agent,” saying that she worked for more than five years at the agency’s headquarters in Langley and that most of her neighbors and friends knew that she was a CIA employee.

We can put another one of the right-wing talking points to bed.