The Rove/Plame Brouhaha: Exactly what DOES the law say?

There are two parts you have to look at:

50 USC 421 and 50 USC 426.
(Corrected- I originally posted 15 USC in error.)

I'm going to put them up in reverse order because § 426 is where the term "covert agent" is defined (see (4) and § 421 is the law concerning "Protection of identities of certain United States undercover intelligence officers, agents, informants, and sources" to which these definitions apply.

TITLE 50 > CHAPTER 15 > SUBCHAPTER IV > § 426

§ 426. Definitions

For the purposes of this subchapter:

(1) The term classified information means information or material designated and clearly marked or clearly represented, pursuant to the provisions of a statute or Executive order (or a regulation or order issued pursuant to a statute or Executive order), as requiring a specific degree of protection against unauthorized disclosure for reasons of national security.

(2) The term authorized, when used with respect to access to classified information, means having authority, right, or permission pursuant to the provisions of a statute, Executive order, directive of the head of any department or agency engaged in foreign intelligence or counterintelligence activities, order of any United States court, or provisions of any Rule of the House of Representatives or resolution of the Senate which assigns responsibility within the respective House of Congress for the oversight of intelligence activities.

(3) The term disclose means to communicate, provide, impart, transmit, transfer, convey, publish, or otherwise make available.

(4) The term covert agent means:

(A) a present or retired officer or employee of an intelligence agency or a present or retired member of the Armed Forces assigned to duty with an intelligence agency:

(i) whose identity as such an officer, employee, or member is classified information, and

(ii) who is serving outside the United States or has within the last five years served outside the United States; or

(B) a United States citizen whose intelligence relationship to the United States is classified information, and:

(i) who resides and acts outside the United States as an agent of, or informant or source of operational assistance to, an intelligence agency, or

(ii) who is at the time of the disclosure acting as an agent of, or informant to, the foreign counterintelligence or foreign counterterrorism components of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; or

(C) an individual, other than a United States citizen, whose past or present intelligence relationship to the United States is classified information and who is a present or former agent of, or a present or former informant or source of operational assistance to, an intelligence agency.

(5) The term intelligence agency means the Central Intelligence Agency, a foreign intelligence component of the Department of Defense, or the foreign counterintelligence or foreign counterterrorism components of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

(6) The term informant means any individual who furnishes information to an intelligence agency in the course of a confidential relationship protecting the identity of such individual from public disclosure.

(7) The terms officer and employee have the meanings given such terms by section 2104 and 2105, respectively, of title 5.

(8) The term Armed Forces means the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard.

(9) The term United States , when used in a geographic sense, means all areas under the territorial sovereignty of the United States and the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands.

(10) The term pattern of activities requires a series of acts with a common purpose or objective.

So, let's put this in terms of a table:

(4)(A)	Present/former spook?	YES	1/1
(4)(A)(i)	Identity classified?	MAYBE	2/2
(4)(A)(ii)	Serving outside US or in past 5 years?	NO	2/3
(4)(B)	US Citizen, Intel relationship classified?	MAYBE	1/1
(4)(B)(i)	resides and acts outside US for intel?	NO	1/2
(4)(B)(ii)	Acting for FBI Counterterror/Counterintel?	NO	1/3
(4)(C)	Non US Citizen	NO	0/1
Other (4) sections don't matter

So revealing Plame's identity, regardless of who did it, does not qualify as an offense according to the definitions of § 426.

TITLE 50 > CHAPTER 15 > SUBCHAPTER IV > § 421

§ 421. Protection of identities of certain United States undercover intelligence officers, agents, informants, and sources

(a) Disclosure of information by persons having or having had access to classified information that identifies covert agent Whoever, having or having had authorized access to classified information that identifies a covert agent, intentionally discloses any information identifying such covert agent to any individual not authorized to receive classified information, knowing that the information disclosed so identifies such covert agent and that the United States is taking affirmative measures to conceal such covert agent’s intelligence relationship to the United States, shall be fined under title 18 or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both.

(b) Disclosure of information by persons who learn identity of covert agents as result of having access to classified information Whoever, as a result of having authorized access to classified information, learns the identify of a covert agent and intentionally discloses any information identifying such covert agent to any individual not authorized to receive classified information, knowing that the information disclosed so identifies such covert agent and that the United States is taking affirmative measures to conceal such covert agent’s intelligence relationship to the United States, shall be fined under title 18 or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.

(c) Disclosure of information by persons in course of pattern of activities intended to identify and expose covert agents Whoever, in the course of a pattern of activities intended to identify and expose covert agents and with reason to believe that such activities would impair or impede the foreign intelligence activities of the United States, discloses any information that identifies an individual as a covert agent to any individual not authorized to receive classified information, knowing that the information disclosed so identifies such individual and that the United States is taking affirmative measures to conceal such individual’s classified intelligence relationship to the United States, shall be fined under title 18 or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.

(d) Imposition of consecutive sentences A term of imprisonment imposed under this section shall be consecutive to any other sentence of imprisonment.