Judge Nixes Plame Secrecy Bid

AUGUST 25--A federal judge yesterday turned down a request from former CIA agent Valerie Plame and her husband that the couple's address be kept secret in court filings in her lawsuit against Bush administration officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney. In an August 11 motion, Plame and Joseph Wilson argued that their privacy would be jeopardized if their Washington, D.C. residential address was included in court pleadings. But that request was rejected by Judge John Bates, who noted in an order filed yesterday that, 'in less than thirty minutes, the Court was able to ascertain plaintiffs's residential address from multiple publicly available sources, including a database of federal government records.' Bates added that the couple's lawyer, Christopher Wolf, has been quoted in one newspaper saying that he is Plame and Wilson's next-door neighbor, 'and the residential address of that attorney is readily ascertainable.' (3 pages)