If you are going to lecture me about 50 U.S.C. 421(b) it would be decent of you to quote the entire statute (see above). The statute's only reference to 5 years relates to the number of years that Rove may be imprisoned for his felonious release of classified CIA information.
For Plame's outing to have been illegal, the one-time deputy AG explained, "her status as undercover must be classified." Also, Plame "must have been assigned to duty outside the United States currently or in the past five years."
Since in neither case does Plame meet those criteria, Toensing argued: "There is a serious legal question as to whether she qualifies as 'covert.'"
The law also requires that the celebrated non-spy's outing take place by someone who knew the government had taken "affirmative measures to conceal [the agent's] relationship" to the U.S.
Toensing said that's unlikely.
Bite me MM.