Joe Wilson threatens legal action against Maj. Gen. Vallely

In a follow up to this post – where I linked up to a World Net Daily article that reported Maj. Gen. Paul Vallely as saying JoeWilson ‘outed’ his wife to him in the spring of 2002 in the Fox News green room – Joe Wilson is now threatening legal action against Maj. Gen. Vallely if he doesn’t retract his statements:

Ambassador Joseph Wilson’s attorney is demanding Maj. Gen. Paul Vallely retract a statement he made to WND that the man at the center of the CIA leak case “outed” his own wife as a CIA employee in conversations more than a year before her identity was revealed in a syndicated column.

A demand letter was sent by Christopher Wolf, partner at Proskauer Rose LLP and counsel for Wilson, to both Vallely and WND tonight.

It disputes Vallely’s claim that Wilson mentioned Valerie Plame’s status with the CIA in conversations in 2002 in the Fox News Channel’s “green room” in Washington as they waited to appear as analysts.

“As you know, that assertion and the claim that Ambassador Wilson revealed to you or to anyone that his wife worked for the CIA is patently false, and subjects you and anyone publishing your statements to legal liability,” states the letter.

It continues: “We are writing to demand that you immediately retract the assertion attributed to you and to insist that you stop making the false allegation. In addition, we request that you identify all persons or entitites (sic) to whom you made any claim that Ambassador Wilson revealed his wife’s employment at the CIA to you.”

The e-mail received by WND included earlier comments by Wilson to his attorney.

“This is slanderous,” Wilson wrote. “I never appeared on tv before at least July 2002 and only saw him maybe twice in the green room at FOX. Vallely is a retired general and this is a bald faced lie. Can we sue? This is not he said/he said, since I never laid eyes on him till several months after he alleges I spoke to him about my wife.”

WND attempted to reach Wilson and Wolf for a phone interview, but Wolf responded in an e-mail, saying: “We do not wish to make a statement. Our demand for retraction of the false and libelous statments (sic) stands. We demand that the article be removed from your Web Site and that any printed versions be retracted, and that an official retraction and apology be issued.”

In a subsequent e-mail, Wolf explained that he had not intended to append an e-mail from Wilson.

“The earlier version appended additional e-mails that were not intended for you and I would ask you to discard them, please,” he wrote. “Specifically, you do not have permission to re-produce or quote from those e-mails sent to you in error. The authors of those e-mails retain all rights in those communications, including copyright and rights under applicable privilege law. Please be advised that your use of those e-mails in any way will compound your liability for the publication of the libelous statements which prompted my letter.”

Maj. Gen. Vallely:

“I think he’s panicked that somebody is going to take him on,” said Vallely tonight. “He can make statements, and yet he’s not brought in under oath.”

[...]

“He was a total self promoter,” said Vallely. “I don’t know if it was out of insecurity, to make him feel important, but he’s created so much turmoil, he needs to be investigated and put under oath.”

I’ll second that!

Related Toldjah So posts:

• Did Joe Wilson out his own wife?
• Fired up!
• Joe Wilson is a liar
• More from the “Joe Wilson is a liar” file
• Plamegate: Has perception become reality?
• Rove and Novak: Pieces falling into place
• Plamegate: a retrospective
• MSM on Nadagate: A miserable failure
• Indictments coming this week in Plamegate scandal?
• Press fawns over Fitzgerald, but Starr was part of the VRWC
• Plamegate predictions
• Libby to Be Charged in CIA Leak Probe
• Scooter Libby and Plamegate: My thoughts