The Plame affair erupted in July 2003, when journalist Robert Novak revealed that Valerie Plame worked as covert employee of the Central Intelligence Agency, although the seeds of the scandal had been laid during 2001 and 2002 as the Bush administration investigated allegations that Iraq had purchased Nigerien uranium.
Between 2003 and 2007, Patrick Fitzgerald led a criminal investigation into allegations that the Bush administration had leaked Plame's identity as retribution against her husband, Joseph C. Wilson, who had publicly questioned the rationale for the Iraq War. In August 2006, former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage revealed that he had been Novak's primary source for the leak.
By July 2007, when President George W. Bush commuted the prison sentence Scooter Libby had received for perjury and obstruction of justice during Fitzgerald's investigation of the leak, the scandal had largely come to a close. In April 2018, President Donald Trump fully pardoned Libby.[1]
2003
January 2003
- January: The National Intelligence Council, responding to the Pentagon's request, drafts a memo addressing the Niger uranium story in which they conclude the story is baseless. The memo arrives at the White House prior to the State of the Union address given later that month.[26]
- 6 January: The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) asks the United States for any information related to the claim that Iraq had purchased yellowcake uranium from Niger.[23]
- 13 January: The INR's nuclear analyst sends email to colleagues providing rationale on why the Yellowcake document is a hoax. The CIA's nuclear analyst does not have the BP-documents in question and requests a copy.[23]
- 16 January: CIA received copies of the original foreign language BP-documents on the Niger-Iraq contract.[23]
- 27 January: During a National Security Council meeting at the White House, someone hands CIA head George Tenet a hardcopy of President Bush's State of the Union address. Tenet is, he later testifies, too busy to read it and hands it to an aide who passes it to a top official in the CIA intelligence directorate who was also too busy to read it.[23]
- 28 January: President George W. Bush gives his State of the Union speech. Toward the end Bush states, "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."[27] The sentence becomes known as the "16 words." In his State of the Union speech, Bush also declares, "The International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed in the 1990s that Saddam Hussein had an advanced nuclear weapons development program, had a design for a nuclear weapon and was working on five different methods of enriching uranium for a bomb."
February 2003
- 4 February: The United States provides electronic copy of the BP-documents on Iraqi acquisition of Niger yellowcake to Jacques Bute, then head of IAEA's Iraq Nuclear Verification Office, who was in New York, and sends a copy to the IAEA offices in Vienna as well.[23]
March 2003
- 3 March: The IAEA tells the U.S. Mission in Vienna the BP-documents on Niger yellowcake were obvious fakes.[23] Among errors reportedly identified in the documents is a reference to a Nigerien constitution in 1965.[citation needed]
- 20 March: Iraq invasion begins.
May 2003
- 6 May: After an off-the-record meeting with Wilson, Nicholas Kristof reports in a New York Times column that "a former U.S. ambassador to Africa" had been sent to Niger the year before and had reported that the Iraq uranium allegations were false.[19][28]
June 2003
- 10 June: State Department staff prepare an internal memo naming Plame as Wilson's wife. The paragraph identifying Mrs. Wilson is marked "(S-NF)", signifying its information is classified "Secret, Noforn."[16][29]
- 12 June: During a telephone call, Cheney told Libby that Wilson's wife worked in Counter Proliferation[citation needed]
- 12 June: Marc Grossman, the Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs, meets with Scooter Libby and tells him that Plame works for the CIA and may have helped organize her husband's Niger trip.[30]
July 2003
The "Plame affair" becomes such during this month. The month opens with Wilson's op-ed describing his trip to Niger and suggesting the Iraqi nuclear threat had been exaggerated, followed within days by multiple Bush administration leaks or confirmations to reporters and the publishing of Wilson's wife's name, revealing that Valerie Plame worked for the C.I.A. despite the fact that she was then undercover. By mid-month the first stories emerge suggesting the Bush administration had leaked this information as retribution against Wilson.
- 6 July: Wilson publishes an op-ed in The New York Times describing his trip to Niger and saying: "I have little choice but to conclude that some of the intelligence related to Iraq's nuclear weapons program was twisted to exaggerate the Iraqi threat."[31]
- 7 July: Secretary of State Colin Powell boards Air Force One for a trip to Africa with President Bush and other members of the administration. Powell carries with him a copy of the 10 June memo his State Department prepared, naming Plame as Wilson's wife and signifying the information is classified "Secret, Noforn."[16][29]
- 7 July: Over lunch, Libby tells White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer that Wilson's wife works on nonproliferation issues at the CIA and was behind Wilson's trip to Niger.[30]
- pre-8 July: Journalist Robert Novak has a conversation with Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Richard Armitage. In that conversation he is told for the first time that Wilson's wife works for the C.I.A., though Armitage didn't tell Novak her name. (In August 2006, Armitage publicly discloses that he believes he was the "inadvertent" leak of the Plame secret, while also asserting that he did not know her actual name at the time.) Novak checks Joseph C. Wilson's biography in Who's Who to identify his wife, finding her maiden name Valerie Plame. According to the reporters Michael Isikoff and David Corn, Armitage's leak was "inadvertent, and the Intelligence Identities Act hadn't been violated."[32]
- 8 July: Robert Novak has a phone conversation with Karl Rove, Senior Advisor to the President of the United States, in which C.I.A. agent Plame is discussed, according to an unnamed source who had been told not to talk about the case. Novak is reported to have told Rove the name of the agent as "Valerie Plame" and her role in Wilson's mission to Africa. Rove is reported to have told Novak something to the effect of, "I heard that, too." or "Oh, so you already know about it." Rove reportedly told the grand jury that at this time he had already heard about Wilson's wife working for the CIA from another journalist, but is unable to remember who that was.[33]
- 8 July: Lewis Libby meets with journalist Judith Miller and tells her that the Niger uranium claim had been a "key judgement" of the October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), and that Plame worked at the CIA. Libby would later state that President Bush had instructed him to disclose information from the classified NIE.[34] The information Libby gave Miller was false; the Niger claim was not one of the "key judgements" headlined, bolded, and bulleted in the first pages of that NIE.[26] Later, after testifying to a Federal grand jury in October 2005, Miller writes in a retrospective account published in the New York Times that on this date (and four days later, on 12 July 2003), Libby "played down the importance of Mr. Wilson's mission and questioned his performance."[35]
- c. 10 July – 11 July: Novak called CIA spokesman Bill Harlow to confirm information regarding Plame and Wilson. According to Novak, Harlow denied that Plame "suggested" that Wilson be selected for the trip, and Harlow stated instead that CIA "counter-proliferation officials selected Wilson and asked his wife to contact him."[36] According to Harlow, he "warned Novak in the strongest terms he was permitted to use without revealing classified information", that Wilson's wife had not authorized the mission and that if Novak did write about it, her name should not be revealed. Harlow said that after Novak's call, he checked Plame's status and confirmed that she was an undercover operative. He said he called Novak back to repeat that the story Novak had related to him was wrong and that Plame's name should not be used. According to Harlow, however, he did not tell Novak directly that Plame was undercover because that information was classified.[37] According to Novak, not only did Harlow fail to say that Plame was undercover, he actually told Novak that "she probably never again would be given a foreign assignment but that exposure of her name might cause 'difficulties.'" Novak states that if he had been told that disclosure of Plame's name would endanger her or anyone else, he would not have disclosed the name.[38]
- 11 July: Creators Syndicate distributes Novak's column naming Plame on the AP newswire.[39]
- 11 July: Time reporter Matthew Cooper's internal Time e-mail message bearing the time 11:07 a.m. is sent to his bureau chief, stating: "Spoke to Rove on double super secret background for about two mins before he went on vacation. ... " Cooper writes that Rove offered him a "big warning" not to "get too far out on Wilson." According to Cooper, Rove told Cooper that Wilson's trip had not been authorized by "DCI" (CIA Director George Tenet) or Vice President Dick Cheney. Rather, "it was, KR said, Wilson's wife, who apparently works at the agency on WMD issues who authorized the trip." Rove also told Cooper that, "there's still plenty to implicate Iraqi interest in acquiring uranium fro[m] Niger".[40] Cooper would later tell the investigating grand jury that Rove concluded the conversation by saying "I've already said too much."[41]
- 11 July (afternoon or evening): CIA Director George Tenet takes responsibility for the misleading language concerning uranium in Bush's State of the Union Address, citing a failure of the agency's vetting process.[42] Director Tenet also (1) clarified that Wilson had reported that a businessman had made possible overtures to acquire uranium from Niger; (2) alleged that Wilson's report did not mention forged documents or even mention the existence of documents; and (3) discussed the October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate conclusions regarding Iraq's nuclear program. According to a 2005 article in The New York Times, Tenet's 11 July 2003 statement was written by Karl Rove and Scooter Libby.[43]
- 12 July: President Bush and his team are still on their Africa visit. White House Press Secretary Fleischer discusses the uranium controversy, at a "press gaggle" at the National Hospital in Abuja, Nigeria, where President Bush was visiting, at 9:20 AM local time. After a brief statement on the President's activities at the hospital, Fleischer answers a question regarding the previous day's statement by CIA Director Tenet. Fleisher states that the President is pleased by the statement, and expresses the President's confidence in Tenet. The next question is one of accountability, which the press secretary deflects, saying, in part, "The greater truth is that nobody, but nobody, denies that Saddam Hussein was seeking nuclear weapons." Fleischer cites Wilson's report as being supportive of the yellowcake claim. The conversation with reporters repeated that intelligence supported the notion that Iraq had or was trying to acquire nuclear weapons. Fleischer reiterates the administration's position that the yellowcake claim should not have risen to the level of inclusion in a "presidential speech." When asked about public perception, Fleischer denies that there's a problem. "Yes, the President has moved on. And I think, frankly, much of the country has moved on, as well."[44]
- 12 July: Journalist Judith Miller again meets with Scooter Libby. After testifying to a Federal grand jury in October 2005, she will write in the New York Times that on this occasion, as on the occasion of another conversation four days earlier, Libby "played down the importance of Mr. Wilson's mission and questioned his performance."
- 12 July: Washington Post reporter Walter Pincus says an administration official told him, somewhat off topic, that Joseph Wilson's wife was a CIA analyst working on weapons of mass destruction and that Wilson's trip was a "boondoggle."[45]
- 14 July: "Mission to Niger" article is written by Robert Novak: "Wilson never worked for the CIA, but his wife, Valerie Plame, is an Agency operative on weapons of mass destruction.[46] Two senior administration officials told me Wilson's wife suggested sending him to Niger ... The CIA says its counter-proliferation officials selected Wilson and asked his wife to contact him." (Italics added.) The story is published on Ari Fleischer's last day as White House Press Secretary.
- 16 July: "A White House Smear" article is written by David Corn and published at the website of Nation magazine.[47] Corn opines that Novak's informants revealed the role of Wilson's wife in order to sully Wilson's name for the sake of revenge, "That would seem to mean that the Bush administration has screwed one of its own top-secret operatives in order to punish Wilson or to send a message to others who might challenge it." Corn's article is the first published to argue a nefarious White House role.
- 17 July: "A War on Wilson?" article is written by Matthew Cooper, Massimo Calabresi and John F. Dickerson, and published in Time. Their article indicates that some of the sources for "A Question of Trust" had informed at least one of them about Valerie Plame's status. They trace the controversy surrounding President Bush's 28 January 2003 State of the Union speech and the African uranium controversy. Anonymous sources of information are attributed to "two senior Administration officials", "another official", and "an intelligence official". Named sources include Vice President Dick Cheney's assistant Scooter Libby, Joseph Wilson, Valerie Plame's superior Alan Foley, and former State Department proliferation expert Greg Thielmann.
- 18 July: Undersecretary of State John R. Bolton is questioned by the State Department Inspector General regarding sources for the Niger uranium claims.[citation needed]
- 21 July: Newsday article "Columnist Names CIA Iraq Operative" by Timothy M. Phelps and Knut Royce attributes intelligence information independently leaked to them about Plame as coming from "intelligence officials" and a "senior intelligence official." Both authors were later subpoenaed during the criminal investigation.[48]
- 22 July: Newsday quotes Novak regarding his use of Plame's name: "I didn't dig it out. It was given to me. They thought it was significant. They gave me the name, and I used it."[49]
- 30 July: When pressed, newly appointed White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan tells reporters: "I'm saying no one was certainly given any authority to do anything of that nature, and I've seen no evidence to suggest there's any truth to it."[50]
August 2003
- 3 August: On CNN Late Night with Wolf Blitzer, Wilson expresses confidence that American forces will find evidence of weapons of mass destruction programs in Iraq: "I think we'll find chemical weapons. I think we'll find biological precursors that may or may not have been weaponized. And I think we will find a continuing interest of — on nuclear weapons. The question really is whether it met the threshold test of imminent threat to our own national security or even the test of grave and gathering danger."[51]
- 21 August: Wilson participated in a "public panel in Washington" and is quoted as having said "At the end of the day, it's of keen interest to me to see whether or not we can get Karl Rove frog-marched out of the White House in handcuffs. And trust me. When I use that name, I measure my words."[52]
September 2003
- 16 September: Scott McClellan says "it's totally ridiculous" to say Karl Rove was the Plame leaker.[53]
- 26 September: Tenet, the director of the CIA, requests that the Justice Department open an investigation into the leak.[54][55]
- 29 September: McClellan says that Karl Rove has personally assured him that he was not involved and that anyone found to have leaked classified information would be fired.[56][57]
- 29 September: Novak insists that he stumbled on the story himself. "'Nobody in the Bush administration called me to leak this,' Novak said on CNN, saying the information was disclosed to him while he was interviewing a senior Bush administration official. ... Novak said the administration official told him in July that Wilson's trip was 'inspired by his wife,' and that the CIA confirmed her 'involvement in the mission for her husband.' ... 'They asked me not to use her name, but never indicated it would endanger her or anybody else,' he said, adding that a source at the CIA told him Plame was 'an analyst — not a covert operator and not in charge of undercover operators.'"[58]
- 29 September: ABC reporter asks "Did you have any knowledge or did you leak the name of the CIA agent to the press?" Rove answers "No."[59]
- 29 September: In an article in the National Review, Clifford May claims that Novak's column mentioning Plame "wasn't news to me. I had been told that [Plame worked for the CIA]— but not by anyone working in the White House. Rather, I learned it from someone who formerly worked in the government and he mentioned it in an offhand manner, leading me to infer it was something that insiders were well aware of."[60]
- 29 September: The Justice Department officially launches a criminal investigation of the leak, while leading Democrats call on Attorney General Ashcroft to appoint a special prosecutor.[61] The Justice Department informs White House counsel Alberto Gonzales around 8pm. Gonzales immediately informs White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card but waits until the next morning to notify the White House staff and to order them to preserve all relevant documents.[62][63]
- 30 September: While on Hardball with Chris Matthews, Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie agrees that, if true, the leak allegations would worse than Watergate: "I think if the allegation is true, to reveal the identity of an undercover CIA operative — it's abhorrent, and it should be a crime, and it is a crime."[64]
- 30 September: During a press conference, President Bush states: "If there's a leak out of my administration, I want to know who it is. And if the person has violated law, the person will be taken care of," but declines to appoint a special prosecutor.[65][66]
October 2003
- 1 October: In a column, Robert Novak writes that he learned Plame's identity from "an offhand revelation from [a senior administration official], who is no partisan gunslinger."[67] After reading the column and realizing that he was that source, Richard Armitage informs Colin Powell and meets with FBI investigators.[68]
- 1 October: Wilson told Ted Koppel on Nightline that "Washington reporters told him that senior White House adviser Karl Rove said his wife was 'fair game'." Wilson "plans to give the names of the reporters to the FBI, which is conducting a full-blown investigation of the possible leak."[69]
- 6 October: President Bush calls the leak a "criminal action".[70]
- 10 October: White House press secretary Scott McClellan says that Rove, national security aide Elliott Abrams, and vice presidential chief of staff Lewis Libby have "assured me they were not involved in this."[71]
December 2003
2005
February 2005
March 2005
- 23 March 2005: Thirty-six news organizations file a friend of the court brief on behalf of Judith Miller and Matthew Cooper.[82] Among those organizations filing are The New York Times, The Washington Post, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, AP, Newsweek, Reuters, and White House correspondents, among many others. It was the general position of these news organizations and their reporters that neither Miller nor Cooper should be held in contempt of court for refusing to testify if no crime had been committed (i.e., no covert agent was "outed" in violation of the relevant statutes).[83]
As evidence that it is likely that no crime had been committed, the news agencies voluntarily filed a friend of the court brief in which they state on page 5:
B. There is Ample Evidence On The Public Record To Cast Considerable Doubt That a Crime Has Been Committed. [Supporting facts and rationale are offered in subsequent pages.]
According to the news agencies, there was no need to compel these reporters to divulge their sources because it was unlikely that a crime had been committed.
June 2005
- 27 June: The Supreme Court declines to hear Miller and Cooper's appeal of the February circuit court ruling.[84]
- 30 June: Norman Pearlstine, Time Inc.'s editor in chief agrees to provide documents concerning the confidential sources of Matthew Cooper to a grand jury.[85]
July 2005
- July 2005: Michael Isikoff reports in Newsweek that Karl Rove spoke with Matt Cooper days before the Novak story, and that it was Cooper who initiated the call and brought up Wilson and his wife. Cooper later tells GJ that the call had nothing to do with Welfare.[86]
- 1 July: Lawrence O'Donnell, senior MSNBC political analyst on The McLaughlin Group, stated: "And I know I'm going to get pulled into the grand jury for saying this but the source of ... for Matt Cooper was Karl Rove, and that will be revealed in this document dump that Time magazine's going to do with the grand jury."[87]
- 4 July: Rove's lawyer, Robert Luskin, admits to Newsweek that Rove did talk to reporters about Wilson's wife before Novak's story, but without knowing her name, in line with his assertion that he only spoke to reporters about her name after Plame's identity was revealed.[88]
- 6 July: New York Times reporter Judith Miller goes to jail to protect the identity of the persons who leaked the identity of a CIA agent.
- 6 July: Rove's lawyer, Robert Luskin, told Newsweek that Rove "did not call Cooper" to give permission to Cooper to testify.
- 7 July: The New York Times reports that Cooper's release to testify resulted from negotiations involving Rove's and Cooper's attorneys.
- 10 July: Newsweek quotes Rove lawyer Robert Luskin as confirming that Rove was the source who gave information to Time reporter Matt Cooper under a pledge of confidentiality, and that he subsequently released him to testify about that conversation to a grand jury.
- 11 July: Rove's lawyer says, "Rove did not mention her name to Cooper."[89]
- 11 July: Cooper did not actually get a call from his "source" Rove. Read a WSJ interview by Rove Attorney Luskin and decided to testify.[41]
- 11 July: White House spokesman McClellan declines to repeat categorical denials of Rove's involvement in the leak and to state whether Bush still pledges to fire anyone found to have leaked.[90][91]
- 13 July: Matt Cooper confirmed that his source on the leak was President Bush's Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove after receiving a waiver from confidentiality signed by Rove's attorney, Robert Luskin.[citation needed]
- 17 July: In an ABC News poll, a plurality (47%) of people surveyed said the White House was not cooperating fully with the ongoing investigation; the remainder either had no opinion (28%) or thought the White House was fully cooperating (25%).[92]
- 18 July: President Bush states that "[i]f someone committed a crime, they will no longer work in my administration." Some interpreted this as a retraction of earlier promises to fire anyone involved in the leak.[93][94]
- 20 July 2005: Robert Muller, the director of the F.B.I., wrote a letter (classified) that praised Italy's cooperation with the bureau in working to determine the source of the forged Niger-Iraq document. The F.B.I. concluded from their investigation that the documents were forged for personal profit and exonerated the Italian service from intending to influence American policy. As a result, the F.B.I. had finished its investigation into the origin of the document.[95]
- 22 July: The Senate Democratic Policy Committee holds unofficial hearings on the Plame affair.[96][97]
- 25 July: In a Gallup poll, 49% of respondents believe Rove should resign.[98]
- 26 July: John Kerry and twenty-five other Democratic senators call for congressional investigations into the leak.[99]
August 2005
- 8 August: In a poll commissioned by Newsweek, 45% believed Rove "guilty of a serious offence", 15% "not guilty of a serious offence", and 37% responded "don't know."[100]
September 2005
October 2005
- 13 October 2005: Judith Miller testifies for the grand jury investigating the Plame CIA leak.[citation needed]
- 14 October 2005: Karl Rove appears in front of the federal grand jury investigating the CIA leak. This is his fourth appearance.[citation needed]
- 28 October 2005: Scooter Libby is indicted on two counts of perjury, two counts of making false statements and one count of obstruction of justice. He immediately resigns as Dick Cheney's chief of staff.[101] The grand jury which issued the indictment disbands.[102]
November 2005
- 4 November 2005: Gen. Nicolò Pollari, Italy's chief of Military Intelligence, told an Italian parliamentary committee on secret services that Rocco Martino, a former intelligence agency informer, was the source of the forged Niger-Iraq document. He did not, however, go so far as to say that Martino was the forger. News reports have stated that Martino claimed to have gotten the documents from a contact at the Niger embassy in Rome. Pollari is also quoted as telling the committee that no Italian intelligence officers were involved in the forgery or distribution of the document. Pollari also told the committee that Martino claimed he was working for the French intelligence service. A French intelligence spokesman called Martino's claims scandalous without going so far as to explicitly confirm or deny the essence of Martino's claim. La Repubblica, in a series of articles a week earlier, claimed that Martino had "produced the forgeries from letterhead and stamps he purloined from Niger's embassy in Rome in 2000."[103]