Victoria Toensing
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Victoria Toensing is a lawyer and partner with her husband, Joseph diGenova, in the Washington law firm, diGenova and Toensing. Her practice specializes in white-collar criminal defense, regulatory inquiries, and legislative advocacy. She claims "particular expertise in high-profile, media-driven matters requiring special legal and press skills." She has appeared as a legal commentator on several networks such as CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC
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[edit] Background
Toensing graduated from Indiana University (where she was a member of Alpha Chi Omega sorority) in 1962 with an education degree; she taught high-school English until she entered law school. She received a J.D. from the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law in 1975, embarking on a career in the U. S. Attorney's office. In 1981, she became Chief Counsel to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, where she helped draft the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982.
In 1984, she joined the Reagan administration as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General, where she headed the "Terrorism Unit," the first working group in the Department of Justice to investigate and prosecute terrorism-related crimes. As part of her work in the DoJ, she managed the government's legal efforts during the terrorist hijacking of TWA Flight 847, the bombing of Pan Am flight 103, and the takeover of the cruise ship Achille Lauro. She also supervised S&L fraud cases, prosecuted nuclear industry regulation cases, securities fraud, and fraud and bribery in the banking industry. In 1988, she entered private practice.
Victoria and her husband Joseph have represented Republican Representative Dan Burton.
[edit] Involvement in Monica Lewinsky Scandal
Toensing and her husband made regular appearances on television claiming that they were the target of investigations by Clinton Administration. [1]
[edit] Involvement in Valerie Plame Scandal
Being one of the key people to help draft the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982, Toensing has been retained by a number of media organizations to give commentary on the Plame Affair. In March 2005 Toensing authored an amicus curiae brief on behalf of Matt Cooper and Judith Miller, two journalists who were subpoenaed in the Valerie Plame investigation for refusing to reveal information obtained from confidential sources.
In the brief, she argued that "there exists ample evidence in the public record to cast serious doubt as to whether a crime has even been committed under the Intelligence Protection Act in the investigation underlying the attempts to secure testimony from Miller and Cooper."[citation needed] She also contended that Ms. Plame didn't have a cover to blow, citing a July 23, 2004 article in the Washington Times which argued that Valerie Plame's status as an undercover CIA agent may have been known to Russian and Cuban intelligence operations prior to the article (by Robert Novak) that revealed her status as a CIA employee.[citation needed]
Plame did have formal covert status in the CIA as she stated under oath.[2] and was confirmed by House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif. However, regardless of her formal status, the statute requires that the government take "affirmative" action to protect the agent's identity and that the government itself not have revealed her identity. Waxman, the committee's chairman, introduced into evidence a memo from the CIA Director, General Michael V. Hayden, affirming her covert status. This latter piece of evidence rendered the rebuttal testimony by the Republicans' witness, Victoria Toensing, irrelevant.
- Further information: Plame affair legal questions
[edit] Notes
- ^ Kurtz, Howard. "The Power Couple at Scandal's Vortex", Washington Post, 1998-02-27.
- ^ Video of Valerie Plame speaking under oath to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
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