The definition is subject to judicial interpretation, but a reading of the plain language of that statute reveals that a covert agent can be an employee of the US intelligence agencies or a private citizen working on behalf of that community.
"[2] The law says that if someone reveals the identity of a covert agent to a third party, "knowing that the United States is taking affirmative measures to conceal such covert agent's intelligence relationship to the United States", can get up to 10 years in prison.
In the 1960s and 1970s, anti-CIA activists occasionally revealed long lists of overseas intelligence agents to sabotage their activities.
[citation needed] In the first decade of the 21st century, a controversy arose in which the White House itself revealed an agent's identity.
A court filing by Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald during his sentencing hearing asserted that Valerie Plame was indeed a covert agent at the time.