Plausible update: the crime

Lambert at CorrenteWire notes that the Prosecutor strongly implies that something very bad may have happened to Valerie Plame's potential covert network. From the press conference:

[FITZGERALD:] And I’ve heard lots of people comment that many versions of the shield law would still have allowed us to subpoena the testimony we did in this case.

And I can tell you that the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed Judge Hogan, who said if there was any qualified privilege, whatever the hurdle was, no matter how high, it was exceeded in this case.

No matter how high? As Lambert writes,

"That, to me, reads like Plame’s outing got somebody killed.

There aren’t many hurdles higher, or crimes more serious, than murder."

Later, the Prosecutor added this:

I've heard lots of people comment that many versions of the shield law would still have allowed us to subpoena the testimony we did in this case.

And I can tell you that the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed Judge Hogan, who said if there was any qualified privilege, whatever the hurdle was, no matter how high, it was exceeded in this case.

And I think what people don't understand -- I understand why it is that newspapers want sources. And I read newspapers and I'm glad you have sources.

This is different. This was a situation where the conversations between the official and the reporter may have been a crime itself. It wasn't someone saying, "Hey, so and so is doing something really, really awful down the hall, but I'm going to get fired if I tell you."

If you're transmitting classified information, it's the crime itself.

But also the reporter is the eyewitness, and what I think people don't appreciate is we interviewed lots of people, very high officials, before we ever went to the reporters....

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed unanimously. The Supreme Court declined certiorari.

I think we ought to step back, take a deep breath and appreciate what the facts were here that are not the ordinary case before we rush into debates about balancing two very important things: the First Amendment and national security. And I don't take either lightly.

Even if Lambert is wrong about murder, something important is hidden in those classified filings. Valerie Plame's job status was classified, and apparently for good reason.

A commenter at Kevin Drum's Political Animal notes that Novak didn't just out Valerie Plame. He also outed her phony firm, Brewster-Jennings. On that subject, CBS News has this:

"If a CIA agent is exposed, then everyone coming in contact with that agent is exposed," says Jim Marcinkowski, a former CIA agent who trained with Plame at the top-secret Virginia facility known as "the Farm." "There is a possibility that there were other agents that would use that same kind of a cover. So they may have been using Brewster Jennings just like her," said Marcinkowski, referring to the fictional firm the CIA set up as her cover that also came out when journalists, including Robert Novak, disclosed it.

Another commenter also points out that Plame could have been a NOC if she occasionally traveled abroad -- even if she lived primarily in Washington since 1997.