Court Tosses Lawsuit Over CIA Leak

A federal appeals court today threw out former CIA spy Valerie Plame's lawsuit against Dick Cheney and a group of former Bush White House officials for leaking her identity to the public. The court ruled that Cheney, Karl Rove, Scooter Libby, and former State Department official Richard Armitage were acting within their official duties when they conspired to reveal Plame's identity to the press, Reuters reports.

Plame was seeking monetary damages, contending that Cheney and the others violated  her constitutional rights and ruined her career by blowing her cover. They did so in retaliation against her husband, ambassador Joe Wilson, who had criticized the Iraq war. In a related criminal investigation, Scooter Libby received 2 1/2 years in prison for perjury and obstruction of justice, but President Bush commuted his sentence.
(More Plamegate stories.)