The Leak
Follow events surrounding the leak of CIA officer Valerie Plame's name during the early days of the Iraq war.
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A CIA report titled "Iraq: Nuclear-Related Procurement Efforts" mentions Italian intelligence concerning an alleged Iraqi deal to buy uranium from the African country of Niger.
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Vice President Dick Cheney's office asks for more information about the uranium claim. The CIA sends Joseph Wilson, a retired diplomat, to Africa to investigate. He reports finding no credible evidence that Iraq was seeking uranium from Niger. Wilson had previously investigated non-Iraq uranium issues for the CIA in Niger, after his wife suggested his name. This time, it's unclear whether Wilson was chosen for the trip because of a memo his wife wrote on his behalf.
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A CIA cable to the White House says that Niger denies the uranium claim. Wilson's trip is not mentioned. The Washington Post reports administration officials say the cable was not worthy of passing up the chain, and that other information circulating at this time supported the claim.
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The Africa allegation appears as a 16-word passage in the president's State of the Union address. It is attributed to British intelligence after the CIA protests its inclusion.
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The International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog agency, tells the Security Council the documents behind the Italian intelligence are forgeries.
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Following stories in The New York Times and The Washington Post which mention Wilson's trip – but not his name – and his findings, Wilson writes about the issue in a Times' op-ed piece titled "What I Didn't Find In Africa."
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Secretary of State Colin Powell reportedly is given a copy of a memo regarding the uranium claim and Wilson's trip to Niger. According to The Washington Post, passages mention Valerie Plame's role in introducing her husband to the investigation. She is not identified as a covert agent, but passages with her name are labeled "S," meaning secret.
Meanwhile, the White House takes back the president's State of the Union uranium claim, calling it "incorrect."
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Columnist Robert Novak calls White House adviser Karl Rove and says he's heard that Wilson became involved in the uranium investigation through his wife at the CIA. Rove says "I heard that, too," though he does not mention her name or that she is a secret agent. A lawyer involved in the leak probe says Rove told investigators he first heard about Wilson's wife from another reporter, but her name came to him through Novak.
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Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper, according to a story he later wrote, calls Rove to learn more about Wilson. Rove tells him neither CIA director George Tenet nor the vice president was "responsible" for the trip to Niger. He also tells him Wilson's wife works on WMD for "the agency," which Cooper takes to mean the CIA. Rove does not mention her covert status and ends the call with, "I've already said too much."
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The Washington Post's reporter Walter Pincus speaks to a government official, who discusses Wilson's wife and says the Niger trip was ignored by the White House because it was a "boondoggle."
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Novak publishes the first article to disclose the name of Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, citing as his sources two unidentified senior administration officials. He writes that the officials had told him Plame had suggested sending her husband to Niger.
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Time magazine publishes "A War On Wilson?," which states, "some government officials have noted to Time in interviews, (as well as to syndicated columnist Robert Novak) that Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, is a CIA official who monitors the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. These officials have suggested that she was involved in her husband's being dispatched Niger.
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Joseph Wilson asserts in a speech that he suspects Rove as the leaker of his wife's identity. He backtracks somewhat from his words a month later. "I did not mean at that time to imply that I thought that Karl Rove was the source or the authorizer, just that I thought that it came from the White House, and Karl Rove was the personification of the White House political operation," Wilson says.
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Presidential spokesman Scott McClellan says it is "ridiculous" to suggest that Rove was involved in the leak. "The president knows he wasn't involved. ... It's simply not true."
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The Justice Department launches a full-blown investigation into the leak. Disclosing the identity of covert U.S. intelligence officers is a crime under the 1982 Intelligence Identities Protection Act.
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The Washington Post quotes an unidentified senior administration official as saying two top White House officials called at least a half-dozen journalists and revealed Plame's identity and occupation.
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Novak says on his CNN program "Crossfire": "[the CIA] asked me not to use her name, but never indicated it would endanger her or anybody else. According to a confidential source at the CIA, Mrs. Wilson was an analyst, not a spy, not a covert operative and not in charge of undercover operators."
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Attorney General John Ashcroft recuses himself from the inquiry to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest after reviewing certain evidence. U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald in Chicago, a veteran of terrorism and political corruption, is given the case.
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Time's Matthew Cooper is subpoenaed by the grand jury.
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President Bush is questioned by prosecutors.
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The New York Times' reporter Judith Miller is subpoenaed. Miller researched, but never wrote, an article on the leak. The prosecutor wants Miller to provide documents and testimony related to conversations she had with "a specified government official" in the days between the articles by Wilson and Novak. Both she and Time's Cooper fight to protect their sources, but their appeals end after the Supreme Court refuses to intervene.
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Rove testifies before the grand jury, possibly not for the first time.
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Time magazine hands over Cooper's notes to the judge. In a statement, Editor-in-Chief Norman Pearlstine says, "The same Constitution that protects the freedom of the press requires obedience to final decisions of the courts and respect for their rulings and judgments."
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Miller is jailed for not cooperating with prosecutors.
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Cooper testifies before the grand jury, saying his source gave him specific authority to discuss their conversation.
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In a change of language and emphasis, President Bush says he'll fire anyone on his staff who has committed a crime. Earlier, he said he'd fire anyone in his administration found to have been involved in leaking Plame's name.
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After nearly three months in prison, New York Times reporter Judith Miller is released after agreeing to testify about the Bush administration's disclosure of a covert CIA officer's identity. Her source, reports the Times, was Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. In a statement, Miller says: "My source has now voluntarily and personally released me from my promise of confidentiality regarding our conversations."
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Presidential adviser Karl Rove
agrees to testify before a grand jury, even though prosecutors have warned they can't guarantee he won't be indicted. No such warnings
were issued before Rove's three previous appearances in the investigation into who leaked a CIA officer's name.
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The New York Times reports Vice President Dick Cheney's
chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, first learned about the identity of the CIA officer in question from Cheney himself. A special prosecutor is nearing the end of a two-year probe into who blew the cover of the officer, whose husband is a Bush administration critic.
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Vice presidential adviser I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby Jr. resigns after being charged with obstruction of justice, making a false statement and perjury in the CIA leak investigation, a politically charged case that could throw a spotlight on President Bush's push to war.
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Vice presidential adviser I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby Jr. pleads not guilty to all charges against him.
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The New York Times reports the retirement of Judith Miller after 28 years with the paper. The reporter spent 85 days in jail protecting a source in the CIA leak case. After her release, colleagues at the Times vilified Miller for her actions and for her pre-war reporting.
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A former top aide to Vice President Dick
Cheney told a federal grand jury that his superiors authorized him to give secret information to reporters as part of the Bush administration's defense of intelligence used to justify invading Iraq, according to court papers.
Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald said in documents filed in January that he plans to introduce evidence that I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby disclosed to reporters the contents of a classified National Intelligence Estimate in the summer of 2003.
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According to court papers filed by Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, Vice President Dick Cheney's former top aide, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, told a federal grand jury that he received "approval from the president through the vice president" to reveal key judgments of the National Intelligence Estimate in 2003 in an effort to defend the president's decision to go war against Iraq. Fitzgerald's filing stopped short of accusing Cheney of authorizing Libby to leak the CIA identity Valerie Plame.
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A federal judge refuses to dismiss perjury and obstruction charges against I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former Chief of Staff.
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A court filing by Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald suggests he has some questions he'd like to ask Vice President Dick Cheney in the perjury case against his former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. Cheney would be asked to authenticate notes about a New York Times op-ed piece by a former Ambassador critical of the war in Iraq.
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A federal judge ordered Time magazine to turn over documents for a White House aide to use in his defense
to perjury and other charges in the CIA leak case. The order by U.S. District Reggie B. Walton also said The New
York Times might have to turn over some information but reduced the scope of documents the newspaper and other news organizations would have to provide lawyers for I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.
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The attorney for top White House aide Karl Rove said that Rove has been told by prosecutors he won't be charged with any crimes in the investigation into the leak of a CIA officer's identity, lifting a heavy burden from one of President Bush's most trusted advisers. Attorney Robert Luskin said that special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald informed him of the decision on Monday, June 12, 2006, ending months of speculation about Rove's fate.
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Columnist Robert Novak revealed publicly his side of the story in the Plame affair, saying Karl Rove was a confirming source for Novak's story outing the CIA officer, underscoring Rove's role in a leak President George W. Bush once promised to punish. The columnist said he learned of Plame's CIA employment from a source he still refuses to identify, and then confirmed with Rove and then-CIA spokesman Bill Harlow. Novak said that prosecutors looking into the leaks already knew his sources when he agreed to disclose them.
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Valerie Plame filed suit against Vice President Dick Cheney, his former top aide, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, and presidential adviser Karl Rove, accusing them and other White House officials of conspiring to destroy her career. In the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court, Plame and her husband, Joseph Wilson, a former U.S. ambassador, accused Cheney, Rove and Libby of revealing Plame's CIA identity in seeking revenge against Wilson for criticizing the Bush administration's motives in Iraq.
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A federal judge is refusing to release daily
audio recordings of the upcoming trial of Lewis "Scooter" Libby. Several news organizations had asked
that recordings be released for broadcast. U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton says broadcasting court proceedings, commentary and analysis could prejudice jurors and lead to an unfair trial.
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Jury selection begins in Libby trial. Opening arguments are scheduled for Jan. 22, in the case that is expected to last four to six weeks.
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Prosecution and defense lawyers make opening statements to the jury and U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton.
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Former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby is found guilty of four of five counts in the CIA leak case. Libby Libby was convicted of obstruction, perjury and lying to the FBI an investigation into the leak of a CIA operative's identity.
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Libby is sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison.
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President Bush commutes Libby's sentence, sparing him
from a 2½-year prison term, leaving intact a $250,000 fine and two years' probation.
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A federal judge dismisses former CIA operative
Valerie Plame's lawsuit accusing members of the Bush administration of leaking her identity. U.S. District Judge John D. Bates drops the case on jurisdictional grounds, and said he wouldn't express an opinion on the constitutional arguments. Plame says she'll appeal.
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Libby drops his appeal. His 30-month jail sentence was commuted, but Libby paid a $250,000 fine and must serve two years' probation.
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A federal appeals court refuses to resurrect a lawsuit that Plame brought against members of the Bush administration accusing Vice President Dick Cheney and several former high-ranking administration officials of revealing her identity to reporters in 2003. She and her husband say that violated their constitutional rights.
A federal judge dismissed the case last year on largely procedural grounds.
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Credits:
CBS News, Factcheck.org, Associated Press
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