Burlingame attorney prepares for Plame case

[DoYouEverWonder]

11/24/2006

BURLINGAME — Joe Cotchett has been involved in a host of high-profile cases, but the one set to begin early next year may end up dwarfing them all.

The Burlingame-based attorney is the lead trial lawyer in the civil lawsuit filed by ex-CIA officer Valerie Plame Wilson and her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson IV, against Vice President Dick Cheney, his former chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, presidential adviser Karl Rove and former Deputy Secretary of Defense Richard Armitage.

The Wilsons are suing over the allegedly "intentional and malicious exposure" by senior Bush administration officials of Plame's identity as a CIA agent in retaliation for her husband's criticism of the administration's case for war with Iraq.

At his office last week, Cotchett picked up a 5-inch- thick binder that he had just received from the defendants in the case. It contained motions to dismiss the lawsuit based on executive privilege.

Leaning forward in his chair, Cotchett assessed the magnitude of the case.

"It's going to be the case of the next year," Cotchett said. "It's going to be the case that everybody watches, because it involves fundamental constitutional issues. It goes right to the heart of our national security."

http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_4717413


I'm definitely looking forward to 2007. Between this, the Libby trial and a Democratic Congress, Bush and Cheney will soon be history.

[drm604]

1. Executive Privilege.

If the courts wouldn't allow executive privilege to be used in Clinton's sexual harassment case, how can they possibly justify allowing it for this?