Ex-State Department official admits leaking Plame identity to press: NYT News
Ex-State Department official admits leaking Plame identity to press: NYT

[JURIST] A lawyer involved in the CIA leak case [JURIST news archive] said Tuesday that former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage [official profile] has identified himself as the "initial and primary source" for the Robert Novak column that revealed Valerie Plame Wilson's CIA affiliation. The New York Times also learned from lawyers close to the case that Armitage learned of Plame's CIA affiliation from a memo that did not mention her undercover status, and that he subsequently passed the information on to Novak. Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald [official website], the prosecutor who led the investigation into the leak of Plame's identity, never brought charges against any official under statutes prohibiting the willful disclosure of CIA officers.

Former vice-presidential aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby [defense profile] was charged last year with obstruction of justice and perjury [PDF indictment; JURIST report] in connection with Fitzgerald's investigation. Libby has pleaded not guilty [JURIST report] and has requested a one-month delay in his trial [JURIST report], which is now scheduled to begin in February. Critics have said that Libby may have told reporters about Plame's identity in retaliation for statements made by her husband that undermined the Bush administration's position that Iraq was seeking uranium for their nuclear weapons program. Columnist Robert Novak revealed Plame's CIA affiliation eight days after Wilson went public with his allegations. The New York Times has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Thomas Becket, former Chancellor of England, murdered by Henry II's knights

On December 29, 1170, Archbishop Thomas Becket, former Chancellor of England, was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral by knights acting in the name of Henry II.

Becket and Henry had been entangled in a power struggle over, among other things, criminal jurisdiction over clergy. Read a contemporary account of the murder of Thomas Becket.

Texas attains US statehood

On December 29, 1845, Texas became the twenty-eighth state to join the United States of America when US President James K. Polk signed the Ordinance of Annexation. Texas had a complicated path to statehood because it had formerly been part of Mexico and then an independent republic. The US Congress passed the Annexation of the Republic of Texas Joint Resolution on March 1, 1845. Voters in Texas then approved the Ordinance of Annexation in October, before it was approved by the US Congress and signed into law by President Polk on this day in 1845. The US Supreme Court later ruled in Texas v. White that, despite its unique path to statehood, Texas did not have the right to secede from the union.