It has been reported that the FBI has been questioning Wilson's neighbors in recent days about whether they knew Valerie Plame Wilson worked for the CIA. What seems to have eluded most commentators on this topic is that the neighbors' knowledge or lack thereof is probably irrelevant as matter of law. The relevant section of the IIPA reads as follows:
It is a defense to a prosecution under section 421 of this title that before the commission of the offense with which the defendant is charged, the United States had publicly acknowledged or revealed the intelligence relationship to the United States of the individual the disclosure of whose intelligence relationship to the United States is the basis for the prosecution.
My theory below the flip.
I think this questioning relates to obstruction of justice and possibly conspiracy charges. The claim that "her friends and neighbors knew" was clearly orchestrated spin, which seems to have begun in The Washington Times. A former NOC named Fred Rustmann made the accusation, which and then got churned and spread by the Republican Noise Machine. If Fitzgerald has evidence that the White House was behind these allegations, it might be grounds for an obstruction charge and would certainly be evidence of an ongoing conspiracy, particularly if the assertion was false.
Firedoglake has a slightly different take:
Fitzgerald has also got FBI agents combing the Wilson's neighborhood, asking neighbors whether they were aware Mrs. Wilson worked for the CIA before she was outed by Robert Novak. Again, it sounds like an attempt to head off a defense that claims "no foul" because her place of employment was common knowledge, and something that is going to be a lot easier to establish now than after the whole thing turns into a bigger media circus than it already is.
Any other theories?