One of the odder excuses used the GOP smearstorm to defend Karl Rove has been the name defense: supposedly Rove simply said that Joe WIlson's wife worked for the CIA, without specifying her name.
This is a rather weak claim logically, and, as Matthew and others have
pointed out, it doesn't seem to be a defense at all under either the IIPA or the Espionage Act. So why make such a fuss over it? My guess is that it's really pre-emptively establishing a defense against charges of perjury, obstruction of justice, or both. Rove probably made statements to either the Grand Jury or to investigators than can be parsed as truthful if you pretend that there's some significant distinction between identifying Plame and using her name.
posted by Alex at 1:04 AM
